This Girl Scout labeled her dad 'My Hero' on her phone. 11 days after learning CPR, she became his hero.

Vada Carawan was 2 when air conditioning fluid spilled onto her dad's hands, leaving them burned, blistered and unusable for about five months. Too small to provide anything but affection, Vada gave all she could. She also watched closely every time her mom dressed his wounds.

Soon, Vada began finding opportunities to care for people. She developed good instincts, too. Like the time she tripped while carrying her baby brother and had the presence of mind to land in a way that tore up her knees but protected his head.

"He didn't have a scratch," she said. "I didn't want him to have a concussion."

So it makes sense that she was looking forward to the day her Girl Scout troop was getting trained in CPR.

And it's fitting that of the 10 or so girls, Vada did the best at giving deep enough compressions to earn a green light from the adult-sized training device.

Still, it's quite amazing that everything came together – her compassion, her presence of mind, even her lifesaving skills – when all were needed the most.

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, 11-year-old Vada saw her dad collapse. His heart had stopped. She immediately called 911, unlocked the front door for the paramedics and started CPR. She delivered chest compressions until help arrived. Her swift, textbook response went a long way toward saving her dad's life.

"That's Vada," said her mom, Amanda Carawan. "She always wants to help."

Helping others is also why the Carawans are sharing their story.

Their full tale includes many messages: The value of learning CPR … the importance of knowing the warning signs of a heart attack … the need to seek help as soon as you see those signs, especially if there's a family history of heart problems.

Yet the best layer of the story might be the bond between this dad and daughter.

***

Clint Carawan hardly knew his father. One of the few things Clint knew was that his father had a heart attack at 32.

So when Clint turned 32, he braced for the worst. Then he turned 33. The more birthdays he celebrated, the less he thought about his heart health.

Working construction kept him strong. At 47, his only health issues were aches and pains stemming from his job. Never one to see a doctor, in mid-November, he gave in a little. He let a chiropractor work on his neck and back.

The following week, his left arm hurt. Chest, too. He figured that first-ever adjustment really beat him up.

Clint and Amanda are separated but remain close friends. They live only a few minutes apart in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Vada splits her time between their homes.

On the fateful Saturday, Vada was supposed to head back to her mom's place. But Amanda knew Clint wasn't feeling well. And because she knew how much Vada loved serving as a caregiver, Amanda said Vada could spend the day with Clint.

Vada encouraged him to relax. Admittedly stubborn, he mowed his lawn. (Clint doesn't remember anything about this day, or several days before. In retrospect, he figures mowing was "probably just trying to do something to take my mind off of what was happening.")

When he went back inside, his left arm and chest were throbbing even more.

"These are heart attack symptoms," he told Vada. He knew because he'd looked them up.

Then he went to take a shower.

"Maybe that'll help," he told her.

***

When Clint became a dad, he vowed to be a good one.

That included sharing his love for the Intracoastal Waterway.

Only a 20-minute drive from his house, he's there as often as possible, especially on weekends. Amanda laughs about Vada's first ride on the Intracoastal coming "when she was in my belly."

These days, Clint cruises the water in a blue and white 21-foot powerboat. He bought one with a small, enclosed cabin so that "when Vada gets too much sun, she can go lay in there for a little bit."

Vada's favorite thing to do on the Intracoastal is sit in an inner tube pulled by the boat – the faster, the better. Clint's Facebook profile picture shows Vada standing on the tube with a big smile as she zooms across the water.

Back in Virginia Beach, Amanda homeschools Vada and Clint gets her to and from extracurricular activities. Over the years, she's done karate, soccer, field hockey, dance and, of course, Girl Scouts.

She started Girl Scouts when she was around 5, stopped for a few years, then started again this school year.

The day that Vada was earning her CPR patch, Clint was waiting in his truck in the parking lot.

"I try to be there for her as much as I can," he said. "As long as we're spending time together, we're happy."

Another tidbit about their relationship involves their cellphones.

When Vada got hers two Christmases ago, she entered his number and labeled it "Dad." She later decided that was lame. So she changed it to "My Hero," adding a superhero emoji.

On Clint's phone, Vada is "Sweet Pea."

***

Even after his hot shower, Clint felt freezing cold. He lay on the couch and Vada brought him a blanket. Soon, he began sweating.

Vada knew this sudden, extreme swing in his body temperature was a bad sign. Having left her phone at her mom's place, she grabbed his and put it in her pocket in case she needed to call for help.

When he got up to go to the bathroom, she followed.

"Do you want me to call anyone?" she asked.

"No," he said. "I'm fine."

Vada waited in the bedroom for him to come out.

Clint took a few steps into the bedroom, grabbed the edge of his dresser and fell backward onto the carpet. Vada heard a thud, then a scary, gasping sound as her dad struggled to breathe.

Her stomach tightened. Tears filled her eyes. She wanted to bawl but knew she couldn't. She had to remain strong, had to remain focused. Had to not only remember everything she'd learned at Girl Scouts just 11 days before, she had to use it.

"I knew that everybody needed my dad, especially me," she later said. "So I needed to save him."

***

With trembling hands, Vada fished his phone out of her pocket and dialed 911. She realized the front door was locked so she went and unlocked it, then returned to the bedroom.

She told the dispatcher she knew CPR. She put the phone in speaker mode so the dispatcher could talk her through the timing of her compressions. Meanwhile, Maggie, her 70-pound golden lab-husky mix, was barking loudly and wedging herself between Vada and Clint. Vada told Maggie to get out. The dog obeyed but continued barking. Vada closed the bedroom door so she could hear the 911 operator.

Vada remembered where to put her hands. She also remembered that she needed to push hard enough for his chest to go down 2 inches. That's important because it keeps blood and oxygen flowing to other organs, including the brain.

The training device offered a clicking sound and a green light when she went deep enough. On her dad, Vada could only hope she was doing so.

***

Maggie's barks drowned all sounds from outside the room. Including the ambulance siren.

Vada only knew the paramedics were there when they ran into the bedroom.

Once the paramedics took over, she fled to the living room and called Amanda. The emotions Vada had been holding back came flooding out. She was so incoherent that someone else had to take over the call.

When Amanda arrived, a paramedic said, "We've already resuscitated him once and we're resuscitating him again." That conversation was outside, away from Vada. She was in the kitchen, surrounded by adults trying to keep her from seeing or hearing the battle to save her dad's life.

Vada didn't want to see or hear any of that either. She drank some apple juice and tried to keep from thinking of life without her dad. She eventually tired of all the tight hugs from adults – "I'm not a stuffed animal!" she thought – and escaped to the garage.

Those walls were thin enough for her to hear the paramedics. So she plugged her ears.

***

A heart attack is essentially a plumbing problem; a blockage in an artery limits blood flow. That's what often causes pain in the chest and left arm.

Cardiac arrest is a power issue; the heart's electricity goes out. This is what causes someone's heart to stop.

A heart attack can cause cardiac arrest. That's probably what happened to Clint.

The artery that carries most of the blood to his heart was 100% blocked. Another artery was 80% blocked.

At the hospital, doctors inserted two stents to clear the blockages. He remained heavily sedated and unconscious for four days.

He awoke the day before Thanksgiving, unsure where he was or what had happened. His mom was by his bed. Amanda and Vada arrived soon after.

As Clint grasped that Vada saved his life, Amanda saw something she'd never seen: tears leaking from both of his eyes.

Every time someone mentioned Vada, Clint would say, "That's my angel. She's terrific."

***

In those harrowing first few days, Amanda busied herself by searching the internet.

She was looking for stories about kids who saved someone's life by performing CPR. She found only a few cases of anyone 11 or younger.

Vada, meanwhile, hardly thought about her role in saving Clint's life.

"At a certain point, I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I did do something good,'" she said.

Amanda shared the news on Facebook. Her post began: "Her dad is her hero every single day – except this past Saturday, when she became his. In a moment that could have changed our lives forever, her bravery and love shone so brightly. Her quick thinking is the only reason he's still here with us."

A reporter from a local TV station called her minutes later. (The timing was a coincidence; a friend had tipped them off.) That TV story led to several more interviews, plus a trip to New York to appear on the "Tamron Hall Show." During that interview, an executive from the Girl Scouts presented Vada with the Medal of Honor, one of the organization's highest honors.

***

Vada keeps getting asked what she wants to be when she grows up.

"At first, I wanted to be a mechanic because I like cars and stuff. But I don't want to ruin my hands," she said. "So I was like, well, what if I become a math teacher? But that's too much work. You have to learn more math, and I don't like math."

The questions keep coming because many see her as destined for a career in helping others. A friend of Amanda's who runs a junior EMT program is among those who think so.

He's encouraging Vada to join his program once she hits the minimum age of 13.

Now, though, he's asked Vada for a favor.

He wants her to be a guest speaker to tell the kids what it's like to save a life.

Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.