Quick-thinking Seminole boy saves 3-year-old girl from drowning

SEMINOLE — Tyler Kemmitzer, 9, saw his 3-year-old sister standing on the pool ladder, a frozen expression on her face. Her hand was pointing down toward the water.

Something was wrong. The pool was off-limits for little Taylor.

She was pointing at Ashley Lawler, 3, floating face-down.

Tyler took only seconds Sunday evening to clamber over a 4-foot fence, jump into the above-ground pool and grab Ashley.

By then the little girl's breathing had stopped.

"I was so scared,'' Tyler said later. "I thought she was dying. Her lips were purple.''

Holding her head above the surface he told Ashley's 6-year-old brother to run for their parents, who had briefly gone inside the house.

Seconds later the girl's mother, Ilea Lyons, 26, brought her daughter back to life.

"I had never done CPR before and just pumped away,'' Lyons said. "Suddenly she choked water and then started screaming."

Ashley was admitted to All Children's Hospital for observation and was released Monday morning.

Tyler's parents, Dee Crisp, 42, and Dale Kemmitzer, 49, had been inside the house with Lyons looking at photos. The families had only recently reconnected via MySpace after not seeing each other for nine years.

"It took probably a minute or two,'' Kemmitzer said. "Dee was looking for a specific picture from the old days."

That was long enough for the two 3-year-olds to climb the ladder and dip their feet into the 4-foot deep water below.

"She must have just slid off the ladder,'' Kemmitzer said.

Despite his heroics, Tyler was feeling a little guilty.

"We have a rule that the last one out of the pool has to take the ladder off. I was the last one before they arrived to visit us," the third-grade student at Seminole Elementary said.

"I was wearing a shirt and sweatpants when I did jump in. That's not in the rules either."

Not surprisingly, getting his clothes wet didn't get Tyler punished. Instead, he got to stay up two hours past his 9 p.m. bedtime.

"He is my little hero,'' Lyons said. "What he did was incredibly brave."

Before the accident, Lyons had kept Ashley and her brother, Austin Hollen, away from water.

"That's why we don't have a pool at home,'' she said. "It's horrible accidents like this one that makes me hate pools."

It's not an uncommon occurrence. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records drowning as the leading cause of injury death for children ages 1 to 4.

On average in the United States, three children die every day as a result of drowning.

The family has had one previous brush with tragedy at the home at 7048 111th St. N.

"In 2007 we were cutting trees with a friend of mine when he touched the overhead power line,'' Kemmitzer said. "He barely managed to get away with his life."

Now the family doesn't know how long it will be able to stay in the house. Kemmitzer had an accident on the job and is living on worker's compensation. Crisp is working two jobs, but they are still facing foreclosure.

None of that takes away from what their son did on Sunday.

"Tyler is an incredible boy,'' Kemmitzer said.

"He did the right thing at the right time."

Researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Stefan Jaeger can be reached at (727) 893-8150 or sjaeger@sptimes.com.