A 16-year-old girl has been hailed a hero after saving a three-week-old baby’s life using CPR skills she had learned at school just 48 hours earlier.

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Ariana Leonardis, a high school student from New Jersey, was walking with her 15-year-old cousin, Riley Porter, in Tuckerton on October 24 when they heard two parents desperately calling for help.

Their newborn baby had stopped breathing, and the couple were frantically searching for someone who could assist.

Despite having only recently completed her CPR training, Ariana stepped forward and offered to help.

The teenager had attended a lesson on October 22 as part of her Human Development and Childcare course at Ocean County Vocational Technical School’s Brick Center.

Just two days later, she found herself putting those skills into practice in a genuine life-or-death emergency.

Speaking to NBC10 Philadelphia, her cousin Riley recalled hearing the commotion while standing in a nearby Wawa car park.

“I was in the Wawa parking lot, and I heard this couple screaming,” he explained.

The parents were outside a former urgent care facility, desperately trying to find help for their baby.

Riley immediately contacted emergency services, telling the 911 dispatcher: “I’m with these two people, and they’re saying that their baby isn’t breathing.”

Meanwhile, Ariana approached the distressed parents and asked whether they wanted her to intervene.

“I walked over I just was like, do you need me to perform CPR? And they told me yes,” she recalled.

Although the situation was extremely serious, the teenager managed to remain calm and focus on what she had been taught.

“All I can really think of in the moment was this, I need to get this baby back to life,” she said. “I had the baby on the ground, and I did chest compressions.”

Ariana also performed back blows, using the emergency techniques she had recently practised during her training.

Thankfully, her efforts soon produced a response.

The baby began coughing before letting out a cry, indicating that breathing had resumed.

“It started coughing at first and then it started like crying a little bit. I felt relieved,” Ariana explained.

During the emergency call, someone could also be heard saying: “He’s starting to cry. I think it went okay.”

By the time emergency medical personnel and police arrived, the newborn was conscious and breathing.

The baby was subsequently taken to a nearby hospital.

Remarkably, Ariana wasn’t the only teenager whose school lessons proved useful during the emergency.

Her cousin Riley had recently been studying Spanish, which helped him understand the parents as they called for assistance.

The couple were speaking Spanish, and Riley recognised that they were explaining their baby couldn’t breathe.

When asked whether paying attention in Spanish class had helped him understand the situation, he replied: “Yeah, it’s actually my favorite class.”

Following the incident, Ariana contacted her mother, Kirah Leonardis, to explain what had happened.

Her mother initially struggled to believe what she was hearing.

“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,” mum Kirah recalled.

The teenager’s teachers were equally amazed by her ability to respond so effectively just two days after completing her training.

Michelle Keenan, Ariana’s Human Development and Childcare instructor, praised her student’s composure and quick thinking.

“I think the fact that she was able to apply that knowledge, you know, two days later, just speaks volumes,” she said.

“Knowledge is power. It empowers them,” she added.

Keenan also described Ariana as a responsible and enthusiastic student who regularly participates in classroom activities.

Cherie Garrison Horhay, the owner of Hands-on CPR Training in Toms River, who had helped deliver the training, was delighted to learn what her student had accomplished.

“Knowledge is power. Knowing what to do in an emergency situation gives you the power to act,” she said.

Ariana, who is also a cheerleader and varsity lacrosse player, hopes to become a preschool teacher in the future.

She explained that learning CPR had always seemed particularly important because of her ambition to work with young children.

“I felt that this was an important skill to learn since I would be working with young children,” she continued.

But neither Ariana nor her teachers could have anticipated just how quickly that training would prove invaluable. And for the teen’s mother, the experience has been an emotional reminder of her daughter’s courage.

“It almost makes me get emotional just thinking how she not only saved a life, but she executed it perfectly,” Kirah said.

Let’s hope this story encourages more schools to introduce CPR training in the classroom.

Featured image credit: https://www.ocvts.org// YouTube/NBC10 (screenshots)