Nursing student who revived Snake Pit partier without a pulse: 'I'm so glad she's alive'

Amanda Hensley says she didn't expect to walk out of the Snake Pit at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a hero. 

The 26-year-old Harrison College nursing student woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for the festivities ahead of the Indianapolis 500. Hours later, she was standing in the front row in the Snake Pit when she noticed a few fellow partiers trying to get the attention of a security guard.

Their friend, whom they were holding up to stand, was limp and unresponsive. Hensley said she reached to help them carry the woman over the barricade when she came to a grim realization: The woman felt cold, looked blue and wasn't breathing. 

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That's when instinct took over, Hensley said. She jumped over the barricade and took the girl's pulse. Nothing. She started chest compressions. 

"I just kept telling her, like, 'Come on, you can do it,'" Hensley said. "'Come on, come back.'"

Hensley said a security guard took over doing the compressions so she could administer rescue breaths. Still, nothing. 

Hensley admitted she started to worry — the longer this woman went without breathing, the more opportunity there was for internal damage — but just before administering a third round of breaths, Hensley said she felt air. 

"I saw her trying to breathe," she said. "I poured water on her, and at that moment, she came back awake."

Relief. 

"Tears, instantly," she said. "I cried."

Hensley said the ordeal lasted about 2½ minutes, start to finish. EMTs were there almost immediately after she was revived.

Several videos posted of the incident on social media have since been removed, but she said people watching shouldn't jump to the conclusion that emergency responders weren't readily available to help. 

"People don't understand," she said. "It's not like you snap your fingers and everyone's there."

Although those few adrenaline-packed minutes left her in shock, Hensley said the momentary stress was worth it. 

"When she hugged me and told me how thankful she was, she asked me, 'Was I dead?'" Hensley said. "To know how thankful she was when she was hugging me and stuff, it was just worth it."

Hensley said it's been rewarding to be called a hero for something that took less than five minutes of her Sunday. 

"I feel like anybody would have done it," she said. "My friends tell me that everyone wouldn't do that. I didn't really think about it." 

And while she's being given all the credit, Hensley said she's not necessarily taking it. It was a team effort, with help from security guards, friends and the EMTs that took the woman to the hospital.

Some of it, she said, was divine intervention: She had completed her CPR recertification days before. It just seemed like she was in the right place at the right time. 

"It's all to God," she said. "I feel like He did more work than I did."

She said she still doesn't know the woman's name, but likely would burst into tears if she got the chance to see her again and hopes she pays the good deed forward.

"I'm so glad she's alive. ... She has so many people to go home to," Hensley said. "I'm just so thankful that she's able to go home and see her family again." 

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.