SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A school nurse is credited with taking life-saving action after a teacher suffered a heart attack. She kept her alive until paramedics arrived and were able to rush her to the hospital.
The school nurse when above and beyond her job. She trusted her gut and continued doing CPR even after police officers around her told her to stop.
Due to her heroic actions, Bethany Simmons-Little was honored by the American Red Cross, Friday.
For Simmons-Little, she was just her doing her job.
“I was just trusting my training,” Simmons-Little said. “I was just trusting my training.”
But her colleagues at Leisure City K-8 Center had a different response.
“Truly an angel and a hero that moves among us on a daily basis,” said Walter hall, principal at Leisure City K-8 Center.
“I witnessed it first hand and what you did was nothing short of a miracle,” a teacher said.
Two years ago, a fellow teacher, Lisa Thelwell, suffered a heart attack in the middle of a class. She laid on the floor lifeless.
“I don’t know where you came from or how you got there, but when I looked up, after I said my last prayer, you were there,” Hall said.
For about 15 minutes, Simmons-Litle kept doing compression. She kept pushing even when officers and paramedics told her it was too little too late.
“He had told Bethany to stop what she was doing, and you looked at him, and I thought, [Oh my God], she’s going to fight the police,” Hall said. “But she, you kept your composure.”
“When you do CPR, you’re taught that you just keep going unless there is an AED present,” Simmons-Little said. “The AED was not present. That person needed me. Compression was the best way. I was following my training.”
Two years later, Thelwell is back at Leisure City school teaching.
The American Red Cross honored Simmons-Little with an award for her life saving actions that day.
“The American Red Cross gives out a National Life-Saving award when someone uses their skill set to save or sustain another life, and in this case, Ms. Little used her nursing training and literally did not stop,” said Debbie Koch, executive director for the American Red Cross for Miami and the Keys. “Followed every instinct of her training and was able to save this woman’s life.”
Even though Thelwell couldn’t make it to the ceremony, she had a few words for her hero.
“When someone saves your life, you’re bonded with them forever,” Thelwell said in a video. “You are my personal hero and I thank God for you daily.”
“Its an amazing feeling, it makes you happy that they’re alive,” Simmons-Little said. “It just makes you happy to be here. I’m happy that she’s here.”
7News was told that starting in 2024, the school district will have CPR classes for students who want to get certified in CPR as well.
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