SF. LOUIS (KMOV/Gray News) – Three nursing students are being called heroes for jumping in to help a man who was so badly injured in a tractor-trailer accident that his heart stopped.

The nursing students, all in their first semester at East Central College, saw the crash while returning to their lunchtime classes three weeks ago. Driver Shane Kurk, 37, was struck by a tractor-trailer while at an intersection in Union, Missouri, KMOV reports.

“Pretty bad. It was a semi vs a car. It’s never a good situation,” said student Toni Sells.

“I saw his head come out of his window and hit his door. I knew in that second we had to go now,” said student Audrey Schroeder.

Driven by their desire to help others, the nursing students stopped their car and rushed to the scene of the accident. Olivia Reed got to the driver’s door first.

“I immediately checked for a pulse. I didn’t feel a pulse,” she said.

Kurk’s car had been hit by the tractor-trailer with such force that it stopped his heart. Reed used a procedure called a sternal rub to assess Kurk’s neurological condition, then began performing CPR. After two rounds of chest compressions, Schroeder stepped in to take control and detected a pulse.

Before long, Kurk started breathing again.

“It felt like forever, probably only 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and he took that big breath of air,” Schroeder said.

Meanwhile, Sells went to check on the truck driver, who he said was hyperventilating.

“I tried to calm him down a little bit, just regulate his breathing. He took the phone from his truck and offered to call someone for him and called his wife,” she said.

Shortly after, the paramedics arrived and took over the place.

The nursing students say they were so focused while helping that the full depth of what they had done didn’t hit them until they started walking away.

“Every time we got back in the car, we all looked at each other and said, ‘Guys, we saved a life,'” Reed said.

Following the accident, Kurk remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit. He faces a long road to recovery, but his family is grateful to be alive. His brother adds that Kurk is showing signs of improvement.

“To see a car crash like that in front of you, it’s a whole different thing to being one of the people jumping,” Sells said.

Now back in the classroom, all three future assistants have a new confidence that they are on the right career path.

“It was a very traumatic event, but for us it was also extremely satisfying to have the confidence that we should be nurses,” Schroeder said.

Students credit their college instructors with the knowledge and certainty that they should step in and help.

“There was no hesitation because there was no time for hesitation. The confidence in my abilities comes from my teachers,” Sells said.

The Union Police Department says the crash is still under investigation.

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