Nurse Saves Life of 3-Month-Old Who Stopped Breathing on Spirit Airlines Flight: 'My Heart Just Dropped'

Mar. 15, 2025

The Spirit Airlines flight had been in the air for about 30 minutes on Thursday when the 3-month-old child experienced the sudden medical emergency, according to FOX affiliateWOFLand NBC affiliateWESH.

Panzino, who was traveling from Pittsburgh to Florida for a Caribbean cruise out of Port Canaveral, told WESH she was relaxing with her headphones on and a book in hand when she heard a flight attendant say an infant onboard was not breathing.

She later heard a loudspeaker announcement, asking, “Is there a doctor onboard?”

“Clearly in distress [and] not breathing,” she recalled. “And my heart just dropped.”

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To get the infant breathing again, Panzino did a “sternal rub” — which she described as “kind of an aggressive shake of the chest” — while Anjelé’s father held her, per WESH’s report.

“The color came back. I heard breathing sounds. I heard (a) heartbeat. Oh, my gosh, total relief,” Panzino told WESH.

Anjelé’s “terrified” parents “praised the positive energy of the plane” in addition to Panzino’s “heroic actions” during Thursday’s flight,Cassette wroteon Twitter.

Panzino does not consider herself a hero, but rather believes the rescue was a team effort, according to WESH.

“It’s not a hero thing,” she told the outlet. “It’s a community coming together and everyone volunteering to help with what their knowledge can do. I’m glad I was there.”

“Our Flight Attendants are trained to respond to medical emergencies onboard and utilize several 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,” a company spokesperson said.

Speaking with WOFL, Panzino said “it made me feel really good” to help out.

“When you have to step forward and do what’s right, you do it,” she told the outlet. “It was just a happy story.”

source: people.com