LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A 10-year-old’s fast thinking helped save a Little Rock teacher who was left gasping for air during an asthma attack mid-class.

No workbooks inside Kim Rosby’s kindergarten classroom at Meadowcliff Elementary, teach what to do when the teacher has an asthma attack and doesn’t have an inhaler in the building.

“I didn’t know how to ask for help because I couldn’t talk,” Rosby said.

Luckily she didn’t need to instruct 10-year-old Nevaeh Woods. The fifth grader who was in the classroom volunteering knew just what to do.

“My family is indebted to you,” Rosby told Nevaeh Friday after school.

Normally Rosby wears a bag around school with her inhaler tucked inside, but on Thursday she didn’t bring it to class.

“This particular morning I decided to lock my purse up in the car,” Rosby explained.

While trying to teach her 18 kindergartners, Rosby says her health took a turn and she was barely able to breath.

“It snuck up on me, it happened quickly,” she said.

Nevaeh noticed something was wrong, but the only instruction Rosby could give was holding up her car keys.

“I had my keys on the desk so I grabbed my keys and started shaking them, and she grabbed my keys and went out,” Rosby said.

“She handed me the keys and I went out there and got it for her,” Nevaeh explained.

Nevaeh says she knew Rosby carried an inhaler and figured it was in the car when Rosby grabbed the keys during the asthma attack.

That life-saving observation is leaving the class with a lesson that doesn’t need repeating.

“I was one of the blessed ones,” Rosby said.

Nevaeh is also being credited with helping keep the class of kindergartners calm while other staff came to help Rosby.