Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

Read more about all of this year’s High School Heroes

Sheila Carter has known Jamie Parga since the week he was born.

She remembers the day his parents brought him home from the hospital to their east Las Vegas neighborhood near Charleston and Nellis boulevards — the kind of close-knit neighborhood where everyone knows everyone and looks out for each other.

That sense of community may have saved her life.

Parga, now 16 and a sophomore at Las Vegas High School, was doing yard work for Carter on Jan. 23 when she stepped into the backyard to greet him.

To Parga, Carter, 60, didn’t look right — and within moments, she collapsed, her face turning purple. She was going into cardiac arrest.

Parga didn’t hesitate. He began performing chest compressions, keeping her alive until first responders arrived. Carter was rushed to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where she recovered.

On Wednesday, Parga was celebrated by the Sun for his quick thinking, receiving a High School Hero award in the category of Heroic Act. He was one of nine teens honored in the recognition program hosted by the Sun and its sister publication Las Vegas Weekly, which also acknowledged students for acts of community commitment — among them, service to the area’s unhoused population and efforts to conserve the region’s dwindling water supply.

Carter is blunt when reflecting on Parga’s heroism: “I’m disabled. I live alone. He saved my life. If he didn’t act, I was dead.” Had Parga hesitated even a moment longer, she added, it could have meant permanent brain damage for her.

When the 911 operator began walking Jamie through the steps, the instructions sounded familiar. He had earned his CPR and AED certification at Las Vegas High School and had kept that card in his wallet ever since.

“My adrenaline was rushing,” Parga said. “I was thinking — this is what I trained for.”

Las Vegas High principal Ray Ortiz said one of the school’s teachers approached him a few years ago about running a CPR class in the gymnasium. For a $15 fee, students could earn certification.

Parga took the course as a ninth-grader — and months later, those lessons proved to be lifesaving.

“This is the kind of stuff you walk on cloud nine about when you hear it as a principal,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz said Las Vegas High’s 2,400 students are, by and large, “great kids.” Parga, he added, is quiet and unassuming — not the type to seek attention. But when the moment called for it, he was anything but.

Carter only remembers not feeling well and Parga asking, “What can I do for you,” she said.

She continued, “He just took over. He kept it up until Fire and Rescue arrived. He had to have been exhausted with all that pumping.”

Parga and his sister went to the hospital later that day to check on their neighbor — and that’s when an awkward reality set in. He had only ever known her as Ms. Sheila. He had no idea what her last name was.

They had to call home and ask someone to dig through a stack of mail just to find it.

Carter has since returned home and is regaining her strength with the support of the neighborhood that has always surrounded her. The Parga family continues to help around the house — and Carter has been returning the favor with home-cooked meals.

“You couldn’t ask for a better kid to be your neighbor, and not just because he saved my life,” Carter said. “He loves his family, loves helping his parents. He’s such a smart young man.”

The experience may have given Parga more than just a story to tell — it’s inspired him to consider a career as a first responder.

“It’s a good feeling helping other people,” he said.

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