Bainbridge resident Tyler Inlow was in the right place at the right time and with the right knowledge to save the life of a Florida woman.

Heading for his home from a store on Highway 27, Inlow quickly turned his vehicle around when he saw the caravan quickly stop in the parking lot he had just left and people frantically jump from their vehicles. The van was full of the woman’s extended family driving through Bainbridge on their way home to Miami.

Noticing the people running around, not knowing what to do, Inlow offered his help.

He saw an elderly woman unconscious and not breathing. The Bainbridge College nursing student immediately applied the lessons he had learned from BC Professor and Registered Nurse Cynthia Davis in the Safety and First Aid course he was taking this summer.

The woman had a faint pulse but was not breathing, so Inlow breathed for her until Emergency Services personnel arrived.

“You always say what you won’t do, but when it happens you can do anything,” Inlow said, adding the experience reinforced his career choice.

“The first brave thing Tyler did right was decide to respond and actually do something to help,” Professor Davis said with pride for Inlow. “Then he followed the steps he learned in class exactly as he had learned them, checking for breathing and a pulse.”

Bainbridge Public Safety Officer Pat Bryant, who responded to the emergency call, gave high marks to Inlow for his handling the situation as he did.

Inlow, who is in the Associate of Arts degree program for a transfer degree to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, said he was in a daze about what he had done as he returned home. Then what he had done hit him, and he wanted to know what happened, so he went to the emergency room just as the family was leaving.

The family and Inlow were glad to see one another.

The Floridians thanked him profusely, and Inlow was glad to know the grandmother was going to be fine.

“It felt good to realize I saved someone’s life,” said the BC student, who is a Bainbridge High School graduate.

Professor Davis said that Inlow will receive a BC Hero Award at Honors Night next spring. His name will be added to the names on the BC Heroes plaque that was created last year after BC student Byron Hamilton saved a fellow student’s life by applying the lessons he had learned in a health and safety class.