FARGO — A Saturday night in late March is an evening eyewitnesses and EMTs will not soon forget.

A horrific car crash in south Fargo left 7-year-old Jason Devine dead, and his little brother clinging to life.

If it wasn't for a quick-thinking nurse working a shift at the nursing home just off South University Drive, there's a good chance 5-year-old Branden Devine wouldn't have survived.

A little more than a month later, the spunky little boy is preparing to leave the hospital. But Tuesday afternoon, April 30, he had a visitor: the nurse who saved his life.

listen live watch live

Branden flirts with nurses and loves playing games and with superheroes, but the 5-year-old has his own miracle story to tell.

On the night of March 23, the car driven by the boy's father crashed near Olivet Lutheran Church on South Univeristy Drive. Jason Devine died, and his brother Branden was pulled from the wreck and given CPR by nursing home registered nurse Jean Pierre.

"I am a nurse; it comes with the career — you have a split second to do something and you do it," Pierre said in a March 25 interview at the scene.

But even with those life-saving measures, Branden Devine was not expected to survive. He was put on life support.

After weeks at Sanford Medical Center, he's had a miracle comeback — and on Tuesday, a special visitor.

"There he is buddy — he is the one who saved (your) life. Can you give him a hug?" Mom Kristin Sande said as she introduced him to Pierre. Sande, who lost one son, thanked the man who rescued and gave life to the other.

"You have no idea — you saved my little boy. Thank you so much," Sande said. "It is amazing, it really is. You are an angel on earth, and I really mean that."

As for Pierre — who came to America from impoverished Haiti — it was a life-changing event in so many ways.

"When you get to see someone go through this and live another day, that is what it is for," Pierre said. "I have decided to take my career a step further. I am transitioning into emergency medicine . . . that moment changed not just him but me."

The father of the boys who police say was driving drunk at the time of the crash, Christopher Devine, faces criminal vehicular homicide charges, and will appear in court next week. He remains in jail.