A New Jersey teenager used CPR to help revive a choking newborn just two days after completing her training.
Ariana Leonardis, 16, and her 15-year-old cousin, Riley Porter, rushed to help on October 24 after hearing the parents of a three-week-old baby desperately calling for assistance in Tuckerton, Ocean County.
“I was in the Wawa parking lot, and I heard this couple screaming,” Porter told NBC Philadelphia.
The crisis unfolded in a nearby parking lot outside a former urgent care center, where the parents had gone while trying to find 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 very little English.
The couple communicated in Spanish, and Porter drew on language lessons from school to help Leonardis understand and 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, 16, right, and her cousin Riley Porter, 15, left, rushed to help after hearing the parents of a three-week-old baby plead for assistance on October 24 in Tuckerton, Ocean County
While Porter contacted police, Leonardis worked to communicate with the baby’s parents, who spoke very little 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 brave and calm enough to put her training into action. Source: Facebook/OCVTS
Leonardis had completed CPR instruction in her human development and childcare class at Ocean County Vocational Technical School’s (OCVTS) Brick Center just two days before the emergency.
“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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She placed the infant on the ground and began performing chest compressions.
The baby soon regained consciousness, then began coughing and crying.
Paramedics arrived shortly afterward and took the infant to a nearby hospital.
When Leonardis later told her mother, Kirah Leonardis, what had happened, the teenager’s account initially sounded too unbelievable to be true.
“She was just like, ‘I just saved a baby,’ and I thought she was kidding. I said, ‘Are you serious?’ And she said, ‘Yeah,’” Kirah told the outlet.
The teenager’s CPR training proved crucial: she had completed the human development and childcare course at OCVTS’s Brick Center only two days before the rescue. Source: Facebook/OCVTS
The Pinelands Regional School District, which is connected to Leonardis’s high school, praised 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, who taught Leonardis’s CPR class, also expressed her pride in the teenager’s response.
“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), affiliated with Leonardis’s high school, later honored her quick-thinking actions in a social media post.
The district described Leonardis as an “excellent” and “responsible” student who brings great energy to her school community.
“We applaud Ariana for her quick thinking, as well as OCVTS for making sure its students are trained to help people in emergencies! Congratulations and THANK YOU, Ariana!” PRSD wrote on Facebook.
The Daily Mail has contacted Michelle Keenan, PRSD and Kirah Leonardis for comment.