Watch: Passengers Cheer After Retired Nurse Saves Baby Who Stopped Breathing Mid-Flight

ORLANDO, FL — Passengers aboard a Spirit Airlines flight from Pittsburgh to Orlando erupted in applause Thursday after a retired nurse jumped into action and revived a baby who had stopped breathing.

“When you have to step forward and do what’s right, you do it,” the nurse, Tamara Panzino, told Orlando news station WOFL meteorologist Ian Cassette. He was aboard the flight and posted a video on Twitter of relieved passengers cheering Panzino’s efforts to save the 3-month-old baby, whose name is Anjelé.

“I was reading my book, not paying attention and had my earbuds in,” Panzino told Orlando news station WESH. “And I heard a flight attendant say, ‘We have an infant not breathing. Is there a doctor on board?’ ”

Unsure what the situation was, Panzino jumped from her seat and raced to the back of the plane.

“I had no idea whether the baby was choking, if the airway was clear,” she told WESH. “I did not know what I was dealing with. Saw an infant. The head was back. Blue lips and her skin turning blue. Clearly in distress. Not breathing. And my heart just dropped.”

While her father held Anjelé, Panzino put years of practical nursing experience to work and performed a sternal rub, which she explained to WESH as “kind of an aggressive shake of the chest.”

Panzino pinched Anjelé to make her “cry or take a deep breath.” The aggressive shaking did the trick. Panzino didn’t have to perform CPR.

“The baby was going to be good. The color came back. I heard breathing sounds. I heard (a) heartbeat,” she told WESH. “Oh, my gosh, total relief.”

The passengers on board shared the moment.

“I’ve never seen that much nervous energy before,” Cassette reported on Twitter. “The second we saw those helping Angelé start to smile we all breathed a sigh of relief.”

The relieved parents “praised the positive energy of the plane and the heroic actions of Tamara for saving her,” Cassette reported.

Panzino told WESH “it’s not a hero thing.”

“It’s a community coming together and everyone volunteering to help with what their knowledge can do,” she said. “I’m glad I was there.”

Cassette also praised the flight attendants “for their quick action” in response to the emergency.

Spirit Airlines also credited teamwork.

“We thank our crew and Guest for the quick response,” the airline said in a statement. “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.”

Emergency crews met the family in Orlando to check out the baby.

Watch Cassette’s video on Twitter.