LANSING, Mich. — 12-year-old Kate Lyon and her nine-year-old brother Jack were in Okemos spending the Fourth of July weekend with grandma and grandpa when the unthinkable happened.
“He just kind of...fell over slowly on the table,” Kate said.
Kate's grandfather, who she calls "pops" had a doctor's appointment scheduled for the next week. He'd been having chest pain.
That Saturday, he had a heart attack.
“I just...it was all so foggy for so many days, slowly it’s started creeping in. I understood...she saved my life," Tim Kissling, Kate's grandpa, said.
Kate delivered chest compressions to her grandfather until paramedics got there.
“Any time your kid does something amazing, I think it’s just kind of like...wow,” Kate's dad, Branden Lyon, said.
Kate knew what to do from a babysitting class she had taken fewer than two months prior at Forrest Hills Community Center.
“I was shocked. I didn’t know she had taken the class,” Kissling said.
Pops, surprised they go over CPR in a babysitting class, but glad they did.
“I would call her a heroine. Yes," Kissling said.
Kate doesn't consider herself a hero. Doctors disagree—they say without her delivering chest compressions when she did, her grandfather would not be leaving the hospital in as good of shape he is.
Kate says the lesson here is simple: get certified in CPR.
“I just did what I could,” Kate said.
