Kim Siegal’s voice cracked a little as she remembered the incident.

“It was one of those really awful moments when you think, ‘I can’t lose this child,’” Siegal said.

Instead, Siegal’s quick thinking –- and her training as a state-tested nursing assistant- – saved her foster child’s life. Now, Siegal advocates for all foster parents to get and update their lifesaving training, no matter how long they have had their license.

Siegal and her husband Bill only had their infant girl for about a week. The baby had been born eight weeks early, and her lungs had not fully developed. Doctors put her on oxygen and a monitor with an alarm that would beep if she stopped breathing.

“They said the monitor could go off if she squirmed or moved a lot, but it would stop once she stopped moving,” Siegal said. “I knew I could handle that without a problem.”

A week after bringing the baby home, the Siegals met to switch care. She was heading home from work, and her husband was on his way to his job.

Siegal opened the car door. The monitor alarm was beeping –and it was not stopping. It kept beeping. The baby was turning blue.

“She wasn’t responding to anything – her name, my touch, nothing,” Siegal recalled. Her nursing training took over – not to mention her memory of a hospital training video.

“I had just watched the hospital’s video about infant CPR,” Siegal said, “and I just remembered it. I just did the compressions and breaths while my husband called 9-1-1.”

The baby girl started breathing again.

Paramedics arrived and took over, getting the child stabilized and ready to transport to the hospital. That is when Siegal said her emotions finally overwhelmed her.

“I cried for awhile,” she said. “You just don’t know how something like this will hit you.”

The infant girl stayed in the hospital for two days while doctors observed her. Siegal said they wanted to see if the child would stop breathing again, but she did not.

The Siegals went to the hospital often to check on the baby. They worried about having a conversation with their own children and one other foster child if something happened to the infant girl.

The baby has been home now for a few weeks, but Siegal still watches her closely. “I’m still a little edgy with her home now,” Siegal said. “But I pray for her every night – and all foster kids, too.”

Looking back, Siegal said the CPR training paid off. She believes all foster parents should not only get trained, but practice it often.

“You just don’t know when it might be needed,” she said. “I hope I never have to use it again, but I know I can do it if I need to. It’s a great thing for every foster parent to know.”