Girl rescued from creek after saving boy from being swept away

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    MOUNT JULIET, TN (WSMV) — A Mount Juliet teen is being credited for saving a little boy from being swept away from a creek, and then she had to be rescued her self.

“It was pretty scary,” 14-year-old Courtney Lloyd recalled. She was babysitting Tuesday afternoon, when the 11 and 9-year-old children she was watching asked to go see the creek behind the house.

“They wanted to like touch the water,” Lloyd said. “I was holding their hands so that way they wouldn’t fall in.”

The rocks were slippery, and the current was strong.

“The 11-year-old boy, he slipped out of my hands,” she said. “He was too fast where I couldn’t grab his hand, so i jumped in and I lost my glasses.” She said the current carried them far and fast.

“He kept bobbing underwater… I grabbed his hand and I saw a branch, so I grabbed onto it and pulled him back up.”

At that point, Lloyd’s mother was able to get the boy out of the water, but Lloyd lost her grip.

“I can’t hold on anymore, so I let go.” And later, “I grab onto a second branch because of how high and how far it was.”

She was too far into the water for her mother to pull her out. They called the police.

“[I was] just praying and hoping that I would make it,” Lloyd recalled. “I was really scared that the branch was going to like break off, and I was going to go flying again.”

But it didn’t and crews were able to get her safely back on land.

“I said thank you and I said sorry a few times, I felt bad,” Lloyd told News4. “I’m really thankful that they came out there, even if they may not have known what to do. They still helped me out, and I’m really really thankful for it.”

The Mount Juliet Police Department posted a video of the creek rescue to their Facebook page, writing “Initial officers arrived to find the female in distress and holding on to a thin tree branch as swift water rushed around her. Without hesitation, one officer shed his ballistic vest, donned an issued personal flotation device, and entered the water. Using an issued rescue throw rope, tethered to the officer’s body, other officers held on to the officer as he swam to rescue the female. Once the officer and female were brought to shore, firefighters hoisted the female up a steep embankment to safety. Time was critical, and on-scene crews did not have the option to wait for a swift water rescue team.”

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