A New Jersey teenager used her CPR training to help save a choking newborn just two days after completing the course.
Ariana Leonardis, 16, and her cousin, 15-year-old Riley Porter, rushed to help after hearing the parents of a three-week-old baby calling for assistance on October 24 in Tuckerton, Ocean County.
‘I was in the Wawa parking lot, and I heard this couple screaming,’ Porter told NBC Philadelphia.
The emergency unfolded in a nearby parking lot outside a former urgent care facility, where the parents had been searching for medical help after their baby stopped breathing.
Porter immediately called 911 and told the dispatcher, ‘I’m with these two people, and they’re saying that their baby isn’t breathing.’
As Porter spoke with emergency services, Leonardis approached the parents, who spoke only limited English.
The baby’s parents were speaking Spanish, Porter explained, so he drew on what he had learned in school to help Leonardis communicate with them.
‘I walked over and just said, do you need me to perform CPR? And they told me yes,’ Leonardis told the outlet.
Ariana Leonardis, (right) 16, and her cousin Riley Porter, (left) 15, sprang into action after hearing the parents of a three-week-old baby plead for help on October 24 in Tuckerton, Ocean County
While Porter called 911, Leonardis worked to communicate with the baby’s parents, who spoke only limited English. Source: Facebook/The CAT EYE PRSD
Michelle Keenan, (right) Leonardis’s instructor, said she ‘couldn’t believe it’ when she learned about the rescue, adding that Ariana was ‘so brave and calm’ that she could put her training into action. Source: Facebook/OCVTS
Leonardis had completed CPR training in a human development and childcare class at Ocean County Vocational Technical School’s (OCVTS) Brick Center just two days before the incident.
‘All I could really think in that moment was, I need to get this baby back to life,’ Leonardis told the outlet.
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‘I had the baby on the ground, and I performed chest compressions,’ she said.
The baby soon regained consciousness and began coughing and crying.
An ambulance arrived soon afterward and took the infant to a nearby hospital.
When Leonardis later told her mother, Kirah Leonardis, about the unexpected rescue, her mother initially struggled to believe what had happened.
‘She was just like, “I just saved a baby,” and I thought she was kidding. And I’m like, are you serious? And she said, yeah,’ Kirah told the outlet.
Leonardis’s lifesaving intervention came just two days after she completed CPR training in a human development and childcare class at Ocean County Vocational Technical School’s (OCVTS) Brick Center. Source: Facebook/OCVTS
The Pinelands Regional School District (PRSD), which is affiliated with Leonardis’s high school, described her as an ‘excellent’ and ‘responsible’ student known for her positive energy.
‘It almost makes me emotional just thinking about how she not only saved a life, but executed it perfectly,’ Kirah said.
Michelle Keenan, Leonardis’s CPR instructor, also praised the teenager’s actions.
‘I couldn’t believe it. Ariana was so brave and calm that she was able to act and apply her knowledge,’ Keenan wrote in a Facebook post.
The Pinelands Regional School District (PRSD), which is affiliated with Leonardis’s high school, later honored her quick response in a social media post.
The district described Leonardis as an ‘excellent’ and ‘responsible’ student with tremendous energy.
‘We applaud Ariana for quick thinking as well as OCVTS for getting their students trained to help people in emergencies! Congratulations and THANK YOU Ariana!’ the PRSD wrote in a Facebook post.
Our News Outlet has contacted Michelle Keenan, PRSD and Kirah Leonardis for comment.
