Seton Hall nursing student saves man in cardiac arrest on airplane

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ (WABC) -- "My role in being trained as a nurse is when someone's in need, you have to help them," says Stefanie Desimone, a Seton Hall nursing student.

And Stefanie did exactly that earlier this summer while on board an airplane coming back from a vacation in Italy.

"I turn around, and I see this man on the floor - he's pure white," Stefanie says.

Now a second-year nursing student at Seton Hall University, Stefanie jumped into action.

"As fast as it happened, all this nursing information flooded back to me," says Stefanie. "I was like, 'Keep doing chest compressions. We need to get a defibrillator!'" She said she called for things in English and Italian.

"I felt so rewarded knowing she took what we've relearned in the clinical and lecture setting and applied it to real life," says Patricia Pappas, registered nurse and instructor at Seton Hall University.

Stefanie says it was a team effort. Her cousin, an Italian doctor, and another nurse who happened to be a Seton Hall graduate, continued CPR in the sky as the pilot made an emergency landing.

"We got a pulse back, and it just kept getting stronger and stronger," says Stefanie.

Just in case, you're inspired, Dr. Sapna Parikh wants to remind you that you too, can save a life - and you don't need a lot of training

Dr. Parikh says that chest compressions alone can increase the odds of survival for someone in cardiac arrest.

Stefanie says the whole ordeal was a reminder of what her training is all about.

"We're taught nurses are part of a team," says Stefanie. "A team of huge healthcare workers to save somebody's life - and that's what it really was. We had a team effort."