The 2:10 p.m. showing for Disney’s newly released “Moana 2” last Sunday was only a few minutes into the previews at Medford’s Tinseltown when Central Point resident Danny Moreno shifted his focus from enjoying a movie with his wife and grandson to responding to a cry for help.

Moreno, a retired fire captain from North Carolina, rushed to the aid of 6-year-old Grants Pass resident Mosaia Hannah.

The girl, who suffers from a heart condition called SVT, had gone suddenly unconscious and went face down on the theater floor. The condition causes a sudden fluctuation in heart rate.

“They were doing previews of other movies of all the other movies they usually do. It had just started into it. We were at the bottom, towards the first step. All of a sudden we hear, ‘Does anybody here know CPR?’” Moreno told the Rogue Valley Times last week.

With 30-plus years of fire and EMS experience, Morena found himself running up the flight of theater steps without taking time to process what might be happening.

“Being who I am with fire and EMS experience, I jumped up and ran there to try to help,” he said.

The girl, known as “Mosie” to friends and family, had visited the Medford theater last Sunday to watch the “Moana” sequel as a group.

Mosie was unresponsive, with her lips turning blue, when Moreno reached her side.

The girl’s mom, Allison Hannah, said she and a group of friends had been planning for weeks to get together with their kids to watch the movie. Hannah was getting the group of kids set up in their seats with snacks and drinks when her daughter went into distress.

“We keep an eye on the SVT, it makes her sometimes have a rapid heartbeat. When it beats too fast, she’s usually really good about communicating that it’s happening. She didn’t say anything this time,” said the mom.

“We got all our snacks and our popcorn, took some pictures of the kids and walked into the theater. We had six kids with us, so I was putting everyone in their seat and heard a friend behind me say, ‘Oh, Mosie, watch out, you’re taking up the walkway.’ I turned around and my daughter was lying face down on the ground.”

Hannah said the same thing happened three years ago, when her daughter’s heart began to race, and she went suddenly unconscious.

“We didn’t even know she had a heart condition that time. What saved her life that time was a sheriff who responded within three minutes,” Hannah added.

Even faster than the 911 call — this time — was the retired fire captain just a few rows away. Hannah and one of her friends had attempted some CPR compressions but were concerned at the lack of response, save for a tiny cough.

“When our other friend yelled out, ‘Does anybody know CPR?’ People started rushing towards us.”

Hannah said Moreno leaped over several rows of seats to reach her daughter. 

“I remember he just said, ‘I know what to do. It’s OK.’ I grabbed my daughter and shoved her into his arms and he took off with her to the bottom of the stairs,” Hannah said.

While the series of events from Mosaia going into distress and until emergency responders arrived at Tinseltown took minutes, Hannah said it felt “like an eternity” before her daughter was loaded into an ambulance.

Moreno stayed with her throughout the ordeal, until Mosie was loaded into the ambulance. Hannah said Mosaia was released back home last Sunday night with no apparent ill effects of her ordeal, save for being upset that she missed the movie.

Long term, Hannah said Mosaia is waiting for a procedure that would correct her rapid heart beating issues. She has to weigh 60 pounds for the procedure, the mom said, though “she’s a string bean” and weighs just 47 currently.

Hannah took to social media to find and thank Moreno for stepping in to help. The two families connected and had dinner together at Kaleidoscope on Friday.

Hannah said she was grateful for the timing of everything, and that Moreno and his family attended the same movie showing as hers.

“It was terrifying and the worst thing ever but everything happened so perfectly … God, fate, anything you wanna call it, Danny was a literal angel who was in exactly the right place at the right time. I was obviously just really freaked out and panicked and probably in shock,” she said.

“Until it was all over, I thought he was an EMT, because he stayed with us the whole time, asking my daughter questions to get her mind off of things, just keeping her calm.”

Medford fire Chief Eric Thompson, who said crews arrived to find Mosie calm and ready for transport, said Moreno’s efforts likely brought a better outcome.

“Globally, when you look at these kind of incidents, anytime we can have a good Samaritan engage the way that he did, it helps the outcome. What this good Samaritan did kind of helped eliminate the need for first responders … and really that was the best thing that could have happened for that little girl,” Thompson said.

“For there to be good Samaritans that have the courage and heart to help people, that’s what we want for our community. … This gentleman, he’s retired. He could’ve called 911. He didn’t have to engage, but all those years of training and community service, you can’t shut that off,” Thompson said.

“Some of that stuff never leaves us. He was a community servant as a professional … once a community servant always a community servant.”

Moreno, who has been around the fire service since he was 10 years old and first joined as a volunteer at 16, shied from social media users referring to him as a hero.

“I more consider myself just someone with training who is in the right place in the right time. Just a situation where God put me in the right place at the right time to be able to help someone,” he said.

“A hero would be someone without prior training to do what I did. My brothers and sisters in law enforcement and the fire service or the military, when we do it, we’re just doing what we have the training to do.”

Moreno said the patient in need being a child tugged on his heart strings a little harder, noting, “I’ve got a passion for the work I’ve one and for helping people, but I’ve got a big a passion when it comes to kids,” he said.

“I’ve done CPR on many children in my 30-plus years and it’s always been the hardest. … You just get in the mode to help but knowing it’s a child it pushes you even more. … I’m just happy and blessed that the true hero of everything was God and he was there and present and that it all turned out OK for Mosie.”