HIGH RIDGE, Mo., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A high school student who happened to be shopping at a Missouri Walmart used CPR techniques that she learned in school weeks earlier to save an 11-month-old girl.
Abby Snodgrass, 17, was in a dressing room at the Walmart in High Ridge, Missouri, when she heard the emergency call over the store radio. She found a crowd around a panicking mother whose child had stopped breathing, she told reporters.
"She did not look like a normal baby, she didn't look alive. And once I saw that no one was doing anything I asked if anyone knew CPR," Snodgrass told KSDK.com
The store's surveillance video of the incident shows the mother with the baby and Snodgrass rushing through the crowd to help.
Snodgrass, who attends Hillsboro High School, had learned CPR during her health class. She said she was scared about putting her classroom learning into practical use but quickly pushed those fears aside.
"The one thought that crossed my mind initially was, 'What if this doesn't work?' And I just had to push it out of my mind and keep going because I knew that's what I had to do," Snodgrass told ABC News.
Chief Mike Arnhart of the High Ridge Fire District, said Snodgrass likely saved the baby's life.
"Seconds count," Arnhart told KSDK.com. "In this case this young lady stepped up, her training kicked in and she did exactly what she was trained to do."
The girl's family expressed their gratitude in a statement to ABC News.
"We are exceedingly grateful to the young woman who helped our daughter," the family wrote. "Our daughter is home and healthy, and we couldn't be more thankful."
Snodgrass, who is enlisted in the National Guard, said she'd like to meet the family.
