Swansboro Pool lifeguard Alethea Tyler is the recipient of a Richmond Fire Department’s Civilian Lifesaving Award. Happening upon a car accident before paramedics, Tyler helped administer life-saving CPR to one of the accident victims.

The entirety of the Press Release is below.

City of Richmond

Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities

For Immediate Release

Nov. 7, 2007

Contact: Christy Everson

804-646-5944

City lifeguard recognized

Alethea Tyler, head lifeguard at the Swansboro Pool for the City of
Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities,
was honored in a ceremony at the Landmark Theater on Oct. 25 as the
recipient of the Richmond Fire Department’s Civilian Lifesaving Award.
It is the only award given annually by the Department to a citizen.

On Nov. 17, Tyler was on the way to her babysitter’s house
on a back road in Richmond when she was flagged down at the scene of
an accident. She first saw only an SUV sideways in the road, but when
she got out of her car she saw a smaller compact car in front of the
SUV. The smaller car’s engine had crashed through the dashboard, and
an elderly woman and her adult daughter were trapped inside.

Tyler realized she had to get the women out of the car as
they were severely injured and bleeding. After helping to remove both
women from the car, she was unable to find the elderly woman’s pulse.
Tyler then administered CPR until emergency personnel arrived on the
scene.

“It was just a natural response, something any normal person would
do,” Tyler said.

Tyler, a Richmond native, is a graduate of Huguenot High School and
holds a degree in nursing from Emory and Henry. She joined Richmond’s
Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities in 1997 as a
seasonal lifeguard and was hired fulltime by the Department in 2003.
She was promoted to head lifeguard in 2006. Tyler is also certified as
a U.S. Swim Coach, a Lifeguard Instructor and a Water Safety
Instructor.