POCATELLO — Moments after spotting a damaged car and dust cloud within the Interstate 84 median, Craig Lathen was administering emergency aid to the driver, who had gone into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing.

Lathen, a Portneuf Medical Center nurse who happened to be driving past the June 22 accident scene near Kimberly, assumed he’d significantly improved the outlook for the woman he’d assisted, but not knowing if she survived weighed heavily on his mind.

Now he knows the answer: On Friday morning at PMC, he got to meet Melanie Parrish Anderson, a 58-year-old retired Pocatello teacher who is alive today because of Lathen’s training and decisive actions.

“We had a win,” Lathen said.

Anderson awoke in a medical aircraft the day after the accident — en route to a Salt Lake City hospital — to find her daughter, Kimberly, rubbing her cheek and assuring her that everything would be OK.

“I didn’t know why I needed to be OK,” Anderson said.

Police later informed Anderson that an anonymous PMC nurse kept her alive by administering five sets of 100 compressions, maintaining her blood flow until paramedics arrived. She contacted hospital staff and shared her story in a Journal article, hoping to lure the mystery nurse forward.

But Lathen was floating the Green River, helping Idaho State University’s Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group lead a rafting adventure for people with disabilities.

Prior to the accident, Anderson had picked up her daughter, Kimberly, and her grandchildren, Deacon, 2, and Adria, 7, in Lava Hot Springs and was driving them to Meridian. Kimberly was talking on her cell phone when her mother passed out and their Subaru began veering toward the right shoulder. She reflexively grabbed the wheel and steered the car in the other direction, across the median and moving against traffic in the eastbound lanes. Ultimately, she got the car to stop safely in the median.

“She took the car from 80 mph to zero without ever touching the brakes,” Anderson said.

Two other men also stopped to aid Anderson and her family, until first-responders showed up. Anderson has learned from medical experts that in rural areas such as Idaho, fewer than 3 percent of patients who require CPR survive.

“When my husband came to the hospital, they didn’t give him much hope,” Anderson said. “My grandchildren did not watch me die. That’s what means the most to me.”

Lathen, 31, who is a 2017 graduate of ISU’s nursing program, has worked at PMC for a little more than two years. Before heading on the float trip, he shared the story about stopping to help an accident victim with his mother, Marilyn, and his sister, Ashley Despain.

“He was like, ‘I just want to know if she lived,’” Despain recalled.

Lathen said he was exhausted from giving the compressions and was relieved when the first-responders took over, but he stuck around to assist them as they injected medication and shocked her three times to restore a normal heartbeat.

Lathen had to fight the urge to later contact state police for an update, reasoning, “Being a health care professional, sometimes it’s easier if you don’t know the outcome. That way you’re not carrying all that burden.”

Despain later saw a Journal article about Anderson’s search for a hero nurse in her online news feed. She immediately called her brother, who had a jubilant float trip after hearing the news.

Despain noticed the victim’s name was listed in the Journal story as Melanie Parrish Anderson.

A friend of Despain’s, whose last name is Parrish, confirmed she is related to Anderson and had the accident victim’s phone number.

Lathen’s mother said both her son and his father always stop and offer help when they pass an accident.

“(My son) says, ‘Slow down,’ and he’s out of the car before I can even stop,” Marilyn said.

Anderson had a defibrillator installed in her heart on June 26. She said her health forced her to retire from teaching prior to the start of the current school year.

Lathen has been moved by the numerous social media comments from people who have mentioned the difference Anderson made in their children’s lives as an outstanding second-grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School.

“I even had people reach out from Portneuf and say, ‘My daughter had her last year. She’s amazing,’” Lathen said. “I think she’s a hero, herself.”