Sibling saviors: 7 brave kids who risked their lives for family

Most children might have trouble imagining risking life and limb for that brother who has a habit of dead-arming them ("Two for flinching!") or that tattling sister. Not so for these courageous kids, who didn't even think twice. Here, a look at seven heroic youngsters who saved their siblings:

1. The girl who pushed her sister out of the path of a truck

Anaiah Rucker, 9, and her sister Camry, 5, were crossing the street in Madison, Ga., when they saw a truck barreling toward them. In a split-second reflex, Anaiah pushed her younger sister to safety, and took the blow of the truck. Anaiah survived, but suffered a broken neck, deep internal injuries, and two broken legs, one of which had to be amputated. But she has no regrets, saying Camry "was too young to be hit like this, and if she got hit she wouldn't hardly be alive. She would be... gone forever."

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2. The boy who saved his sister from their burning home

When 10-year-old Antoine Burks' house in Louisville, Ky., caught on fire, his first instinct was to get outside. But standing out there, watching his home burn down, he realized that his 6-year-old sister Trinity was trapped in the flames. So he bravely dashed back in to get her. "I thought, if something bad happened to her, it might have been my fault, because I'm the big brother and I gotta protect her," he said.

3. The girl who hauled her sister from a frog pond

Neveah Reynolds, 4, and her sister Kazmirah, 2, were re-enacting fairy tales at a pond near their home in LaFolette, Tenn. Looking for frogs that would turn into princes, Kazmirah slipped into the water, "where all the frogs live," said Neveah. The quick-thinking four-year-old grabbed a stick and used it to pull her sister out.

4. The boy who saved his drowning sister

Darren Mollan told his kids not to go near the backyard pond at their new home in Dumfermline, Fife, Scotland. But 5-year-old Sophie did anyway, plunging toward the bottom after hitting her head on the way down. Good thing her 8-year-old brother Kyle was there to grab her hand and haul her out. "He had his wits about him," says mother Lynn. "That's why we're so proud of him, he's really got his head screwed on."

5. The boy who sacrificed his life to save his brother

During heavy flooding in Toowoomba, Australia, the Rice family was stuck on top of their stalled car as powerful floodwaters rose and swirled around it. A rescue worker approached them and tried to save 13-year-old Jordan first, but he insisted, "Save me brother," 10-year-old Blake. Blake was ferried to safety, but the floods carried Jordan and his mother away to their deaths. "[Jordan] is just the champion of all champions, a family hero," said his father John Tyson.

6. The boy who learned CPR from a movie

The parents of Tristin Saghin, 9, probably thought they were doing him a favor when they told him to stop watching Black Hawk Down, the R-rated action movie about a botched military operation in Somalia. But it appears gratuitous Hollywood violence serves a purpose after all: When Tristin's 2-year-old sister was found floating face down in the pool of their grandmother's house in Mesa, Ariz., her older brother, recalling a scene from the movie, was the only one who knew how to perform CPR. Her life was saved before the emergency medical workers arrived.

7. The boy who saved his whole family from a fire

The Bowen family in Kingston, Jamaica, were all asleep when their house caught fire. It was 6-year-old Adrian Dwyer who roused them from bed and even carried his sister out of the house before it came crashing down in flames. "...40 minutes after, everything was gone," said Adrian's mother, Keisha Bowen.

Sources: Babble, TheBlaze, DeadlineNews, Guideposts, Jamaica Gleaner, TODAY.com (2)