A retired nurse was in the right place at the right time recently. When a 3-month-old baby stopped breathing in the middle of a flight to Florida, she sprung into action.
It happened on a Spirit Airlines flight that had been in the air for about a half hour. Tamara Panzino was on her way to Florida for a cruise. She had her headphones in when she heard a flight attendant say an infant onboard wasn't breathing.
Then, over the loudspeaker, she heard, "Is there a doctor onboard?" The retired nurse headed straight for the baby and noticed that she was definitely in distress. She was unresponsive and had blue lips. Tamara said her "heart just dropped."
The baby had blue lips and wasn't breathing. So the retired nurse did what's called a sternal rub. She told WESH that it's "kind of an aggressive shake of the chest."
As she continued to try to rouse the baby, the infant's color began to return. "I was so glad and kept shaking it aggressively," she said.
Panzino was incredibly relieved, but even though the baby's parents are calling her a hero, she denies that much.
"It's not a hero thing," she said. "It's a community coming together and everyone volunteering to help with what their knowledge can do. I'm glad I was there."
