A New Jersey state trooper saved the life of a young girl while he was on a family vacation in Florida.

Trooper Charles Travis was in Orlando last Friday, relaxing by the pool with his family when he began to hear people yelling for a lifeguard.

Travis ran over as bystanders pulled a 7-year-old girl out of the pool. She was not breathing. He began to perform CPR on the girl and slapped her back to get the water out. He says it wasn’t working at first.

"I rolled her over one last time, started really slapping her back hard. And then at that time, you're thinking, maybe she was eating something the pool, choking on something. So, I lifted her up and started doing the Heimlich maneuver…she gurgled up some water or threw up some water. At that moment, I was like, ‘OK, we got this,’” Travis says.

First responders arrived soon after the girl regained consciousness, and she is expected to be OK. Travis was even able to meet the girl a little while later.

Travis says that in his career as a trooper, he has been on many calls like this – but ones where the outcome wasn’t as happy. He credits his training in the state police and his time as a former lifeguard for helping him step in and save a life.

“Everything just falls into place and you're doing your job that you're trained to and you don't think of anything else,” he says.

Travis says that his message to parents is to always be on alert when children are near a body of water.