A group at Lurie Children's Hospital presented Chicago Fire Department paramedics and EMTs with a Community Hero Award Wednesday morning for saving a baby from cardiac arrest. 

But the first responders also gave credit to the girl's parents for doing something they say everyone should know how to do.

"I think that this save will carry all of us the rest of our career," said CFD paramedic Shlomo Starck. "We can always reflect back on it, and it was very uplifting to have helped that young girl — and it's very empowering."

Before paramedics like Starck felt empowered, there was an emergency. It was 4 a.m. on March 18 when CFD ambulance No. 74 and truck No. 6 responded for a 13-month-old baby girl named Arbora suffering from cardiac arrest.

"She's the bravest little girl I know," said Arbora's mother, Tina. "She has been through so much, and yet she's here like nothing ever happened."

Arbora has no idea the scare she gave her parents, Tina and Tim.

"For us, it was a shock as parents, but they see this kind of thing every day," said Tim.

The child's parents started CPR, and the CFD teams took over when they arrived at the home. 

"They jumped on the patient immediately, started compressions," said Starck. "One even started doing rescue breathing — mouth-to-mouth."

Chicago paramedics knew what to do, and so did mom and dad.

"We were just doing our job," said Starck. "The true heroes are the parents."

Firefighters give credit to the parents, who had taken a CPR class and were already working to save their daughter's life when first responders arrived.

"We got the child's heartrate back," said Starck. "Her skin pinked up. Her lips went from blue to red. It was a beautiful sight."

Arbora was treated at Lurie Children's Hospital, and is now back home.

"They did a fantastic job, discovered that she had a very rare disease that led to this seizure and respiratory and cardiac arrest," said Starck.

On Wednesday, the Project ADAM team at the hospital presented the Community Hero Award to Starck and his fellow CFD paramedic Patrick Papiez from Ambulance 74, and to EMTs Casey Postilion, Zeko Durovic, Sergio Luna, and Andrew Lewandowski from Truck 6. Donny Settle was also among the honorees for helping with CPR. 

"I want to emphasize the importance of learning CPR," said Dr. Stuart Berger of Lurie Children's Hospital. "Everybody in the community should learn CPR."

Project ADAM, Automated Defibrillators in Adam's Memory, is a national program focused on educating and equipping schools to respond to a sudden cardiac event. 

"The Chicago Fire Department's quick and life-saving actions provided this child with a second chance," Lurie Children's Hospital said in a written statement.