Student Uses CPR Training to Save Friend in Car Accident

BY LAURIE DAVISON PINELLAS COUNTY

PUBLISHED 7:03 AM ET MAR. 05, 2021

On February 20, Torrie Norwood, 16, and A'zarria Simmons, 16, were involved in a car accident in St. Petersburg. Norwood put her new CPR skills to the test to save her best friend.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Lakewood High School student put her newly learned CPR skills to the test to help save her best friend.

On February 20, Torrie Norwood, 16, and A'zarria Simmons, 16, were involved in a car accident in St. Petersburg.

Worried that the car might explode, Norwood took off running but then she realized Simmons wasn't with her.

She ran back to the car and pulled her friend out.

(Norwood and Simmons said they are closer than ever. "She's literally my other half," said Norwood. "I'm just glad she's ok.")

Simmons was unresponsive and had a deep cut on her head.

"I just snapped into reality. I just saw my friend on the ground and I knew what I had to do," said Norwood.

She started doing CPR on Simmons using training she had just learned at Lakewood High School's Athletic Lifestyle Management Academy.

"It was crazy because I just finished the test in CPR the day before and in class I thought, "This will never happen to me but I'm just going to learn it anyway" and then it actually happened to me the day after," Norwood said.

Simmons was rushed to the hospital. She is now at home recovering and said she feels like Norwood saved her life.

"If it wasn't for her I would have been somewhere I didn't want to be and then on top of that, she risked her life for me and I don't know how to pay her back for that," she said.

Norwood's teacher, Erika Miller, calls what she did that night "remarkable."

"It literally brings me to tears every time I hear the story. I am just so incredibly proud of her. It's what every teacher hopes they learn in class is how they can use this in the real world and she is the epitome of that," Miller said.

Norwood and Simmons said they are closer than ever.

"She's literally my other half," said Norwood. "I'm just glad she's ok."

Original Article Link:

Student Uses CPR Training to Save Friend in Car Accident (baynews9.com)