Only a day after completing CPR training, a young girl saved her best friend’s life moments after a car accident.
- A student, 16, saves her friend’s life after a car accident a day after completing CPR training.
- Torri’ell Norwood successfully performed CPR on her friend, who suffered a severe head injury during the crash.
- After the terrifying incident, both girls are eager to pursue careers in the medical field.
Torri’ell Norwood, a 16-year-old student at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, Florida, saved her best friend’s life thanks to her CPR experience. Norwood had completed her CPR training only a day before she needed the skills to help her friend who was injured in a car crash.
As per Newsner, while taking part in her school’s Athletic Lifestyle Management Academy, the young girl was introduced to various careers in health science. Talking to CNN, instructor Erika Miller said:
“We do vital signs and they learn how to take blood pressure and check pulse. We have just about 100 students in our academy.”
Torri'ell Norwood, 16, sprinted toward a smoking car, as bystanders worried it would blow up, pulled her friend to safety and began CPR that saved her life. 🙌
https://t.co/li39iaw29h— WFAA (@wfaa) March 7, 2021
CPR was amongst the top skills Norwood learned during her training. The instructor added:
“There are two components, a hands-on skills component where they have to demonstrate that they’re proficient in the skills of adult, child, and infant CPR, how to help somebody who’s choking, as well as how to use an AED (defibrillator). And then there’s a written test component, showing that they retain that knowledge.”
The day after the 16-year-old student had completed her academy practice, she used the skills she has learned to save a life.
On February 20, while Torri’ell and three of her friends were driving home, they had a harrowing car accident. Another vehicle slammed into theirs, sending their car careening into a tree. The young girl explained:
“We crashed in someone’s yard and I hit the tree.”
The crash was so severe that Norwood’s side of the door was smashed, and she had to exit the car through the window. Two of her friends were also able to get out of the vehicle unharmed. Unfortunately, she was terrified to find out that her best friend, A’zarria Simmons, was still inside the car. It turned out that she had suffered a head injury.
Torri’ell described the horror she had experienced:
“When I turned around, I didn’t see A’zarria running with us. So, I had to run back to the car as fast as I can. She was just sitting there unresponsive.”
When Norwood saw her friend lying unresponsive in the car, she knew she had to use her training to help her.
Lakewood’s student said:
“A lot of people started to gather around to see what was happening. I started yelling, ‘Back up, back up, she needs space.’ That’s when I checked her pulse on her neck. I put my head against her chest, and I didn’t really hear nothing. So that’s when I just started doing CPR on her.”
A’zarria eventually regained consciousness after 30 compressions and two rescue breaths. When paramedics arrived at the scene, they rushed her to the hospital. There, the injured girl received stitches for the wound in her forehead.
Just one day after completing CPR training, 16-year-old Torri'ell Norwood saves her friend's life (A'zarria Simmons ) after a car crash in Florida. pic.twitter.com/iVUJ2QxTCh
— IG: @themelaninshadesroom (@tmelaninsr) March 25, 2021
Simmons recalled:
“I don’t remember the hit or anything about the accident. But when I woke up, I was in the hospital. I was in shock. I was trying to figure out how I got there.”
She also shared that after the accident, she and Norwood have been closer than ever.
“We’ve been friends since seventh grade. And since then, it has just been us.”
The CPR instructor was thrilled to find out that her student had saved a life thanks to the training.
Erika Miller commented:
“I was just absolutely astounded. I have former students come back once they’re in nursing school or have gone on to pursue careers as EMTs and say ‘Oh my gosh, you know, this is what it was like’ but not while they were still a student of mine or definitely not within 24 hours. This is what every teacher dreams of, you know, that somebody listens, pays attention, learns something.”
The girl, whose life was saved by her best friend, explains how grateful she is to have Torri’ell by her side.
“She will always help any way she can, to help anybody. Even if it wasn’t me, if was someone else and she knew she could do something to help, she would do it. So I wasn’t really shocked about that.”
Presently, both Simmons and Norwood are eager to pursue careers in the medical field. Torri’ell shared:
“I do want to be a nurse. I know that if somebody was in need of help, I’d go to the rescue.”
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