Man who saved baby's life on plane: "There was a big problem"

A Florida man's routine cross-country journey became anything but when a woman on his flight Tuesday night lifted up a toddler from the third row from the back of the plane.

"It was Smurf blue," Garrett Goodwin told CBS affiliate KGPE-TV in Fresno, Calif.

Goodwin was flying from Tampa, Fla., to Phoenix Tuesday night when the former Army medic's training kicked in.

"I knew immediately there was a big problem," Goodwin said.

Goodwin took the 15-month-old toddler named Gary into his arms and made way for the front of the plane to administer CPR.

"Kids are resilient - they bounce back, but working a cardiac arrest on a 15-month-old baby is just not what you want to do at 30,000 feet with limited resources and limited space," Goodwin said.

Goodwin worked on Gary for about a minute and a half until he started breathing again on his own.

"When he got his color back, I was a little bit relieved," said Goodwin. "When he started crying, I was extremely relieved because a crying baby is a breathing baby."

He apologized to his fellow passengers for the sound that's usually an unwelcome noise on most flights, and they applauded him for saving Gary.

"There was that emotional breath of fresh air for the plane because they were a part of this too," said Goodwin. "You know, it was traumatic for the people on the plane to see this big, monster guy come running down an aisle with a blue baby."

The plane was diverted to Houston for the emergency. Gary is reportedly doing fine.

"You don't get a lot of chances to have a save like that," he said. "It doesn't happen very often, even in the medical field, a very clear, you know, if-you're-not-there-that-person-would-perish kind of thing."

He said he hopes the attention his story's attracted will motivate people.

"You never really know what you're getting into before you get into it, and you either rise to the occasion or you don't, and if it wasn't me, maybe it would have been somebody else," said Goodwin. "Hopefully it would have been somebody else because I want people to make that decision in their community, 'I'm going to go get CPR certified, I'm going to learn first aid,' or, 'You know what? I've already done that. What else am I going to do?'"