Tulsa Mayor Honors Two Lifeguards For Saving Man's Life

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum honored two city lifeguards on Monday, for helping to save a man's life near the McClure Park pool this summer.

The two lifeguards honored are always keeping their eyes on people in the water. But in this case, a man needed help in the parking lot, after he collapsed.

At the city's regular departmental leadership meeting Monday, Mayor G.T. Bynum honored Julianna Pope and Gus Rolston with a CityStar safety award.

"People on the team at the City of Tulsa are so modest -- trade off is, they don't toot their own horn enough,” Bynum said. “And so I never heard about this from these two. I heard about it from the firefighters who responded and thought it was extraordinary and thought that I oughta know about it."

"I didn't really expect it. In my head, it's just my job,” Pope said.

"The pool was not crowded at all that day. And a guy came up to me and asked if we had a defibrillator,” Rolston said.

Rolston and Pope will never forget the June day they rushed over to help the man. They said someone had already started CPR, and called 911.

Pope said she jumped in, gave eight or nine rounds of CPR, and Gus grabbed the defibrillator.

"It said, 'no shock advised.' And they continued the chest compressions. And he then woke up and then the ambulance came,” Rolston said.

"About 20 seconds before the firetrucks and the ambulance got there, he took a gasp of air -- he came back."

Both are thankful for their training, which turned out to be lifesaving.

"I was doing it thinking, 'I can't do this. I can't do this.' I was literally doing the motions thinking, 'This isn't going to work. I'm not going to be able to do it. But it worked,” Pope said.