While on a beach vacation in South Carolina, a group of physician assistant students from Mesa's A.T. Still University saved a woman's life.

About 15 minutes after the students arrived at Hilton Head Island, a woman in her 20s collapsed, began seizing and lost her pulse.

Mikayla Freeman, one of the students, said the five future physician assistants immediately sprung into action. Two of them administered chest compressions, one checked the woman's pulse, one called 911 and one talked with the woman's friends to determine her medical history.

"It was the right place, right time, right people," Freeman said.

After several rounds of CPR, the woman's pulse came back.

Freeman said that although each of the students had performed CPR in a hospital setting, they'd never been bystanders to an unexpected emergency.

"I was so proud of my friends. We were able to jump into this critical situation and help," Freeman said. "That's what we're going to school for. We want to help people."

The five students are completing their clinical year in Georgia before returning to Arizona to graduate in August.

"We have all these great memories together, but this was almost like a bonding thing," Freeman said.

Freeman posted a photo of the group on the beach on Facebook along with the story of how her medical training kicked in when it was most needed. She said she hopes it will inspire other people to get CPR certified.

"It goes to show how important it is to have those basic skills. We had the knowledge and skill set to be able to respond to something like that and help her," Freeman said.