18-year-old lifeguard in Colorado helps deliver baby at YMCA pool

LONGMONT, Colo. — Lifeguards are taught how to save lives. An 18-year-old lifeguard in Colorado learned how to bring in a new life.

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Natalie Lucas, who has worked at the Longmont YMCA for the past three years, helped deliver a baby last month, KMGH-TV reported.

Lucas said her Sunday shift was “a pretty calm day, usually,” but that changed on July 24 when Tessa Rider, who was nine months pregnant, went into labor while swimming at the pool, according to the television station.

“(I) thought, ‘Oh, I’ll go for a swim. It’ll be nice and cool,’” Rider told KMGH.

The baby had different ideas.

At about 10:45 a.m. MDT, Rider was swimming in the lap pool and began to scream, KDVR-TV reported.

“I kind of knew I had to spring into action,” Lucas told the television station. “I ran back and grabbed my medical bag, grabbed my walkie-talkie and some towels.”

Lucas immediately directed another swimmer in the pool to call 911, and the dispatcher gave the young lifeguard step-by-step instructions.

“I grabbed some towels, I had to clean out his mouth to make sure there was no residue, no blocking the airway at all,” Lucas told KDVR.

Lucas told “Good Morning America” that she was “freaking out a little bit” and was nervous.

“I knew I needed to stay calm and level-headed,” Lucas told the news outlet. “The couple was very calm about it all while it was all happening, which kind of surprised me. So I made sure to keep my head on and stay with them, keep asking them questions, keep them focused on the baby and (make sure) that they [were] the most comfortable.”

Rider told KMGH that the delivery on the pool deck was “perfect.”

“She was there to do anything we asked,” said Rider, who was also assisted in the delivery by the baby’s father, Matthew Jones. “And the first thing I could think of was could someone hold my back up. And she did, and it was perfect.”

Lucas said the whole process took less than five minutes before the baby boy, named Tobin, was born.

“Without her, I would not have been able to safely focus my attention that Tobin came out and that he was safe and healthy,” Jones told KMGH.

“He’s definitely going to be a swimmer,” Lucas told the television station.

Certainly not a normal shift for Lucas, who said she was proud she remained focused and calm.

“But I still had to work three more hours, so it was a crazy day,” she told KMGH.

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