11-year-old Mass. girl hailed as hero after saving newborn sister

STOUGHTON, Mass. -- A young Massachusetts girl is being praised as a hero after she saved her newborn sister's life.

Eleven-year-old Alise Fabregas said it was all because of a lesson she recently learned in school.

Miranda Fabregas, now a week old, is as cute as they come. But when she was 2 days old, there was a moment that could have turned tragic if not for her big sister.

"She had been spitting up, so I heard her about to spit up," said the girls' mother, Jamie Fabregas. "And all of a sudden, she just, it wasn't coming out. It was so scary."

That's when Alise took over, having just learned CPR and the Heimlich maneuver in school.

"I told my mom to turn her around and at an angle and pat her back," she said. "That way, the spit up could come out. And I also called the nurse."

Alise and her sixth-grade class are taught the lifesaving measures at school in Stoughton. Health teacher Chad Kelley thought it might come in handy.

"CPR is really what the primarily focus is on, but we do deal with choking victims, whether they're infants, children or adults," he said. "So in this case, it was an infant, and Alise did a great job."

What did Alise think of her heroic action?

"I was a little (nervous), but I tried to just be in the moment and save her," she said. "I didn't want anything to happen to her."

Alise said she hopes to one day be a veterinarian, because she wants to save animals, too.