Back on May 29, Elijah Watkins suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed while he was playing at the 42nd Street Elementary School playground in South Los Angeles.
Ciara Turner was at the school supervising the children that morning. She dialed 911 and performed CPR on Elijah. She says the boy wasn't breathing.
"I'm going to leave it with divine intervention," said Turner. "When I think back on it, it brings tears to my eyes even to see him."
After paramedics arrived, they put Elijah in an ambulance and took him to a nearby hospital. They say they felt relief when Elijah started to stabilize.
"It was that moment where you actually come to realize why you do what you do and helping people, and the payoff that you get is seeing someone be able to transfer from kindergarten to first grade," said Ivan Covin with the Los Angeles Fire Department. "It was just an exciting moment for all of the firefighters and everyone that was there."
Elijah's parents say the 5-year-old spent several weeks in the hospital.
"Elijah is very grateful, and he has just been released from the hospital as of Friday so he's a little bit temperamental right now," said Lottie Watkins, Elijah's mother. "But he does want to come to the (fire) station, and he wants that ride on the truck."
According to his parents, Elijah wants to be a firefighter or a paramedic when he grows up.
