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With traffic swirling around him, and some drivers not realizing the seriousness of the situation, the steps the teenager did next could serve as a textbook example for exhibiting grace under pressure. {related_content_uuid}b81f8f38-4bd1-4813-8a9d-0cb6ef20cd46{/related_content_uuid}

There’s quick thinking. There’s remaining calm in a moment of crisis. And there’s the difference between knowing what to do and exhibiting the intestinal fortitude to get it done.

Put those together and it’s still doesn’t quite describe what 16-year-old Tayen Landers of Central Point was able to accomplish during a ride home from school recently.

After all, his grandmother’s life hung in the balance.

A freshman at Cascade Christian High School, Tayen is earning well-deserved praise from medical and law enforcement personnel after his actions during a harrowing Nov. 15 incident saved the life of his Patty Landers, his 77-year-old grandmother.

She was behind the wheel as they were nearing the intersection of Biddle and Table Rock roads — a spot which, even under the best conditions, can be stressful to navigate — when she began to lose consciousness.

“I have to do something!” realized Tayen, who was in the adjoining front seat.

He did more than something.

Pull Quote

With traffic swirling around him, and some drivers not realizing the seriousness of the situation, the steps the teenager did next could serve as a textbook example for exhibiting grace under pressure.

As the vehicle began to drift across traffic lines, he unbuckled himself and managed to get his leg in position to apply the brakes.

With traffic swirling around him, and some drivers not realizing the seriousness of the situation, the steps the teenager did next could serve as a textbook example for exhibiting grace under pressure:

• He called called his father, who advised him to call 911 immediately;

• He grabbed the wheel, got the car stopped and flagged down a few motorists to help;

• Seeing his grandmother in distress, he pulled her from the vehicle and began CPR — having learned the technique from his father — until law enforcement and medical teams arrived;

• And if that wasn’t enough, he did it all while maintaining his awareness, at one point telling 911 dispatcher Melissa Brown that he couldn’t move the car out of traffic because he wasn’t licensed to drive.

“Any idiot can handle a crisis,” goes the quote attributed to, among others, playwright Anton Chekov. “It’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.”

We beg to differ (at least about the first part of the saying), particularly when we hear a story as compelling as this one.

Could our children, at 16, be able to act that well, that quickly, when the life of someone they love was in danger? Could we ourselves have done that at 16, or even today, if finding ourselves in the same situation?

“It was a very intimidating scene,” Jackson County sheriff’s Deputy Will DeKruger said while recounting the difficulties Tayen faced. “So, for a 16-year-old to react that quickly and get the job done, is incredible.”

Brown also praised his actions and his polite composure while on the other end of the 911 call.

“He was answering my questions really great, giving the information we needed to be able to get her some help,” Brown, herself a mother of five, said. “He absolutely saved her life.”

An ever-grateful and proud Patty Landers called her grandson her hero, while Tayen’s father Lance called the outcome “a gift” considering its timing just prior to the holiday season.

DeKruger later presented Tayen with a “challenge coin,” given out to someone whose actions are particularly heroic or commendable.

“I told him,” DeKruger said “‘Tayen, you did an amazing thing.’”

We couldn’t agree more.