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(Fort Hood Sentinel) – Everyday across the world in homes and hospitals, the human body proves its toughness, and the human heart demonstrates its capacity for compassion.

One 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, officer has experienced both first-hand.

On Jan. 30, on a Denver highway beset by blizzard conditions, a 28-year-old woman fought for her life with the help of a man her family knows simply as Henry.

2nd Lt. Henry Rodriquez and his wife, Brittany, were driving through snowy conditions in an attempt to get out of Colorado before a storm hit. They had escaped to the mountains for the weekend while Rodriquez was still a student in the Army Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Benning, Georgia.

On their journey down U.S. Route 285, the couple came across Molei Wright in an encounter that would change their lives.

When Rodriquez saw a semi-truck on the side of the road and a vehicle in the center after what was clearly a collision, he knew he had to help, he said.

“I told my wife to put the hazards on, stay in the car and call 911, and then I was going to go and see if everyone was okay,” said the Artesia, New Mexico, native. “I went to the driver’s side, because that was the side with the most damage to it. It was pretty much like scrap metal.”

After assessing the driver, Jeremy Osheim, and determining that he was going to be okay, Rodriquez asked Osheim if there was anyone else in the car.

Osheim said, “Molei.” Molei was his girlfriend.

But there didn’t appear to be anyone in the passenger seat or the back seat.

“I didn’t see anybody in the car, so I was like, ‘Where is she?’” Rodriquez said. “And he goes, ‘She was right here,’ and I didn’t see anyone in the passenger seat, so I ran around instantly, and I opened the door, and Molei was in the floorboard tucked in where you usually put your feet.”

After ascertaining that her pulse was weak, and she was in dire straits, Rodriquez resolved to remove her from the vehicle.

“I tried to stabilize her neck as best I could and got her out of the vehicle,” he said. “I picked her up by myself, put her on the ground, started CPR, did compressions. The boyfriend was going crazy, because he was lodged into the car. He wasn’t able to move, and I can’t imagine not being able to.”

Rodriquez began CPR. When more cars came along, Brittany solicited their help. One man helped Rodriquez perform CPR by doing chest compressions while he gave breaths. Another man spoke on the phone to emergency personnel.

They collected blankets from other motorists to help warm Molei. Rodriquez remained calm and managed the whole situation, directing people, talking through the instructions to perform CPR.

When Molei began breathing on her own, Rodriquez rolled her on her side in what is known as the recovery position, wrapped her in blankets, talked to her and reassured her that she would be okay. He stayed with her until the ambulance came – it took 45 minutes.

Upon handing Osheim and Molei over to the EMTs, the couple continued down the mountain and caught the last flight out of Denver before the storm grounded air traffic for five days.

Rodriquez and Brittany returned to Fort Benning where he completed the Army Basic Officer Leaders Course, but the relationship with Molei didn’t end there.

“I told my wife to find her family and see if she made it,” he said. “And that’s all we cared about was to see if she made it, because it would have haunted us, not being able to know what happened to her. We got in contact with the hospital. They told us she made it, and that’s where it stopped. We never thought we’d get any feedback from her family or anything, and they gave us a call.”

Meanwhile, back in Colorado: A couple of days after the accident, Osheim, who suffered a concussion and some broken ribs, began talking about what happened, said Maureen Wright, Molei’s mother.

“He told us about a couple that helped them,” said the Parker, Colorado, native. “The truck went over the line. He tried to avoid the truck, and the truck hit them. And he said if it wasn’t for the young couple, some guy and his wife or girlfriend – they didn’t know – if they weren’t there, he didn’t know what would have happened.”