ANGIER, N.C. — Nurses help save lives everyday, but a WakeMed nurse was honored for saving a life under extraordinary circumstances.

Last December, Mary Pennington was driving home with her two kids when her car was hit by an elderly woman who ran a blinking red light on Highway 210 in Harnett County. After the accident, her 12-year-old daughter, Caitlin, was not breathing.

"I knew something was wrong when the back of her head was laying against the seat," she said.

Despite having broken ribs, Pennington managed to do rescue breathing and get her daughter breathing again.

"To be able to get air into her lungs, I just had to blow and then spit her blood out of my mouth and keep breathing for her back and forth and praying and crying," she said.

Caitlin spent two months in the hospital. She still has no sense of smell and taste, but overall, she is recovering well.

"I thank God every day for her and thank God that it was my destiny to become a nurse," she said.

Pennington was one of 10 nurses nationwide honored in Washington D.C., last Friday by the American Red Cross.