Aldergrove nurse Breana Jones is trained to stay calm in life-threatening situations, but she never thought she'd have to use her skills on her own father.

Breana and her fiancée Jamie Bell received the prestigious Vital Link Award during a ceremony in Kamloops Saturday morning to honour their life-saving actions resuscitating Brett Jones.

Breana and Bell were with her parents at the family's Little Shuswap Lake cottage when Breana's father collapsed in the early morning of May 28, 2011.

He'd suffered a cardiac arrest.

"No amount of teaching or nursing in the world can prepare you for that situation," said Breana recalling the moment her father stopped breathing.

She and Bell immediately initiated CPR, which kept Brett going through nearly half an hour of cardiac arrest and Brett's fading pulse.

And even when BC Ambulance crews arrived, Breana maintained a professional demeanour.

"I asked them if they wanted me to start an IV," she said.

When paramedics April Hames and Andrew Stanley arrived on scene, they found Breana in calm control of her nursing skills.

"Breana and Jamie were really impressive," said Hames. "They took direction from us and continued with CPR until we had a pulse back. They did everything we needed to help Brett all the way through 27 minutes of cardiac arrest."

Brett was fortunate a BC Ambulance advanced life support unit arrived to transport him to Royal Inland Hospital, where he was air-lifted to St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.

There he was implanted with a cardioverter-defibrillator. He's now back at work and has made a full recovery with no neurological damage.

His survival was all the more astounding when it was revealed that fewer than 10 per cent of people who have a cardiac arrest survive.

Brett attended Saturday's ceremony with his wife Shirley Jones who made the 911 emergency call. He beamed with pride and gratitude, and pronounced his fondness for his daughter's new fiancée.

"Jamie is definitely my favourite of Breana's boyfriends," he said. "We both survived his initiation into the family." 

BC Ambulance Service Kamloops district paramedic supervisor Troy Clifford also recognized the team of paramedics that responded to the emergency, including the dispatcher, the first paramedics on the scene and the critical-care paramedics responsible for transporting Brett from Kamloops to Vancouver by air ambulance for further treatment.