A retired nurse came to the aid of a baby who had stopped breathing on a Spirit Airlines flight from Pittsburgh to Orlando last week. Tamara Panzino said she was reading a book through her headphones when "she heard a flight attendant say, 'We've got a baby that's not breathing.'" Shortly after, an announcement asked if there was a doctor on board. The retired nurse ran to the back of the plane to see if she could help.
"I didn't know what I was dealing with," said Panzino. "I saw a baby. The head was just back. And the blue lips ... And my heart sank.
Panzino asked some questions before getting to work, handing the three-month-old baby to the father.
"He held it while I did a sternal rub, a kind of aggressive shake of the chest." Pinch the baby to get it to react. "I was trying to make it cry or take a deep breath," Panzino explained.
Panzino did not need to perform CPR because the baby's color returned.
The incident occurred on Spirit Flight 1691 from Pittsburgh to Orlando on Thursday, according to the airline.
"We express our heartfelt gratitude to Tamara for coming to the aid of [our] guests, and we applaud our crew for their quick response," the airline said in a statement.
"Our flight attendants are trained to respond to medical emergencies onboard and use a variety of resources, including communicating with our designated on-call medical professionals on the ground, using onboard medical kits, and receiving assistance from credentialed medical professionals traveling on the flight," Spirit said in a statement.
Panzino stated that the airline had everything the team needed to respond on board.
She said they knew "we were home free" within a couple of minutes.
"The baby was going to be fine. The color had returned. I heard breathing sounds. I heard a heartbeat. Oh, my goodness, total relief."