NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Miami-Dade College teacher pulled off a class act when she rushed to help a student having a seizure.
Sarah Rollo earned widespread praise when she saved the life of her student while teaching a physiology class at MDC North Campus.
Rollo told 7News she noticed something was off about one of her students in the middle of a presentation.
“As soon as she got back to her seat, about two minutes into me lecturing the class, I started hearing some sounds in the back of the class, and I immediately knew she was having a seizure,” she said.
Rollo said she recognized the symptoms and acted quickly.
“She was gurgling at first — it was kind of like she couldn’t breathe — and she fell out of the chair,” she said, “and as soon as she fell out of the chair, it was kind of like a vomiting situation.”
The teacher immediately helping her student, saving her life.
“I had to hold her on her side so that she wouldn’t choke on her vomit,” she said.
Thanks to her other job, Rollo said, she was able to easily detect the seizure.
“I do work currently also in Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, in the Department of Neurology, where we do see patients that have seizures often,” she said.
The student, Villelora Melhado Petrie, said she is grateful to be alive.
“I honestly don’t remember anything when I had a seizure. This is the second time,” she said. “I don’t remember; I blacked out completely, where I don’t remember anything, or all I remember was just people helping me and I’m in the hospital.”
Her professor was at the hospital with her to make sure she was OK.
“She was there with me, and she was just like, ‘Calm down, it’s OK, you’re OK,’ so she made me feel way better,” said Melhado Petrie.
Rollo knew it was the right thing to do.
“It’s scary when you wake up in a situation and not knowing where you are or what happened, so going above and beyond for her was so that she didn’t have to panic afterwards,” she said.
Melhado Petrie was glad she had someone there by her side.
“There’s not a lot of, you know, professors that are like that out there, so just for her to come with me to the hospital really, like, you know, showed me the type of person she is and how kind and generous she is,” she said. “If she didn’t step in, I don’t know what I would do.”
Melhado Petrie said the next step forward is to get an MRI and talk to a doctor who specializes in seizures.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.