3 young people save autistic, nonverbal Newark camper's life in "very emotional situation"

A day at the pool turned into a life-and-death emergency Thursday. 

A camper and two lifeguards went to a Newark pool expecting a normal summer day. A child's life depended on all three. 

A 13-year-old camper went into the pool at Saint Peter's Park Recreation Center on Lyons Avenue just before 10 a.m. 

Kye Muse-Thomas heard a friend screaming for help. A fellow camper, who is autistic and nonverbal, was suffering a seizure in the pool. Muse-Thomas was there to help his friend out of the water. 

"Well, actually, honestly, I didn't do CPR after all. But I did pick him up heroically, and I saved his life, actually," Muse-Thomas said. 

That CPR was done by teenage lifeguards Rafaela Cura and Kyayla Dixon-Hammond. Their typical day at the pool doesn't involve emergencies, Cura said, but rather "cleaning up boo-boos and telling people to stop running." 

The unresponsive camper was their first real emergency. 

"I did compressions while Kyayla did ventilation, and it was a very emotional situation where we had to, like, put our training to use," Cura said. 

It took five cycles of CPR, but then the boy gasped. 

"It's kind of scary when you realize you're working with somebody who doesn't have a pulse and then you get their pulse back," Dixon-Hammond said. 

"Relief. I think I breathed with him for the first time he was breathing," Cura said. 

Paramedics took the boy to the hospital where he's recovering. 

Cura and Dixon-Hammond credit their training, their teamwork, and a friend who was there to help.

"I feel courageous and brave and heroic with my unexpected heroism," Muse-Thomas said. 

All three learned a little about themselves — that sometimes what we're made of doesn't show up until someone else needs us to find it.