WOMAN HONORED FOR SAVING A LIFE.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: MIKE FRICANO Staff writer

As Elizabeth Anne Zugalla's 82-year-old grandmother, Violet Lafferty, lay unconscious in a driveway where she had struck her head in a fall, the action that saved her life came fast and automatic.

``I was scared to death and cried the whole time,'' said Zugalla, 19. But that didn't stop her from administering CPR.

That was on June 8, 1997. Yesterday, Zugalla, who now attends LeMoyne College in Syracuse, received the American Red Cross Certificate of Merit, the agency's highest honor, for her quick thinking and cool under pressure.

The honor has been given to only 12,000 individuals or groups since 1911 …