VOLNEY, NY – For Kara O’Neil, Mother’s Day came early. Her 8-year-old son saved her life recently.

“Well, a little over a week ago, I collapsed from an ecoli infection. I had a seizure and I stopped breathing,” she told Oswego County Today. “My son, Austin Blance, who is 8 years old, performed CPR and mouth to mouth resuscitation on me.”

She was getting a glass of water when she froze and fell down, Kara recalls.

“She wouldn’t breathe or nothing,” her son added.

“He started breathing into my mouth and pushed on my chest,” Kara said. “He was performing CPR.”

After performing CPR for a little while, the young hero called 911 and the State Police was dispatched to the residence.

“The state police and rescue people told me that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. I am so proud of him and I am so happy to be alive because of him. They gave him these little junior trooper badges, tattoo and stickers,” Kara said.

“He said learned CPR on the History Channel of all places! He is just this little guy, so sweet and wonderful, and yet so smart, and strong,” she continued. “I never imagined (Austin) had the strength to do CPR. I don’t know what else to really say.”

Her son wasn’t feeling that well that particular day as well. He had been under the weather and was staying home from school because he wasn’t feeling much better, his mother said.

“I am feeling a bit better. I am happy to be here still. When something like that happens to you, you really get a different perspective on life and it’s a positive one. Everything in the world seems so much brighter,” she said. “If Austin wasn’t there that day, there could be a completely different outcome. I am just so thankful for my little hero!”

She describes her son as “a very modest kid who is just glad he could help.”

He said he wants to be an architect when he grows up.

Kara said she doesn’t know how she got the infection.

“All I know is Austin is my little hero and I love him,” she said, adding, “Everyone should learn about CPR.”