CONCORD, N.H. Andy Hoang eagerly began her first nursing job this year in New Hampshire, with a desire to specialize in cardiac care.

She was excited about attending a November practice session on how to respond to someone in cardiac arrest. But as things were getting under way at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Hoang, 23, started to feel dizzy and nauseated. She felt she needed to sit down.

Thats the last thing I remember, she told The Associated Press in an interview. I woke up to a room full of doctors and nurses.

It turned out that she, herself, had gone into cardiac arrest and needed help immediately. Her colleagues sprung into action instead of practicing chest compressions on a mannequin in a simulated environment, they went to work on her.

One checked her carotid, one her femoral (arteries), and she did not have a pulse, instructor Lisa Davenport said.

The nurses started CPR and a code blue, or medical emergency, team was called.

What was really stressful about the situation was that we never had a real code blue in the center, Davenport said. We train for them all the time.