Retired nurse recounts saving baby's life after it stopped breathing during flight

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A retired nurse ran to the back of a plane and saved a 3-month-old infant who had stopped breathing during a flight.

Tamara Panzino was already in vacation-mode 35 minutes into her Spirit Airlines flight Thursday night from Pittsburgh to Orlando.

"I was reading my book, not paying attention -- had my ear buds in. And I heard a flight attendant say, 'we have an infant not breathing,'" Panzino recalled.

Soon after, an announcement came over the PA asking if there was a doctor onboard. Tamara got up and ran to the back of the plane.

"I had no idea whether the baby was choking, if the airway was clear. I did not know what I was dealing with," Panzino said. "Saw an infant, the head was back, blue lips, skin turning blue. Clearly in distress. Not breathing. And my heart just dropped."

Even though Panzino is a retired RN, the years of experience kicked in. A round of questions revealed that the infant was not doing anything when she stopped breathing.

"Gave daddy the baby, held it while I did a sternal rub, kind of an aggressive shake of the chest. Get the baby to pinching it. Trying to make it cry, take a deep breath," Panzino described.

They were moving to the front of the plane when they noticed a change, WESH reported.

"The baby's color started looking better," Panzino said. "I was so glad and kept shaking it aggressively."

She did not have to perform CPR and calls it a team effort.

"Sprit Airlines has everything we needed right onboard and before we knew it, we knew within a few minutes that the baby was... we were home free," Panzino said. "The baby was going to be good. The color came back, I heard breathing sounds, I heard a heartbeat."

Panzino pushes back on being called a hero.

"It's not a hero thing, it's a community coming together and everyone volunteering to help what their knowledge can do. I'm glad I was there," she said.

Now, after a day to decompress, Panzino is ready for her and her husband's Caribbean cruise out of Port Canaveral.

Spirit airlines released a statement thanking the crew and the nurse for their quick response.