On Her Birthday, Girl Gives Gift of Life to Elderly Couple

Shellie L. Cecil celebrated her 16th birthday by giving a gift to an elderly couple, a Corona police spokesman said Thursday: She saved their lives.

Shellie was riding her moped down a busy Corona street at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, when she saw a large Buick run a stop sign, hit a parked car and continue on out of control. Its elderly driver was slumped over, and a passenger was frantic.

Shellie parked her scooter in the middle of busy Avenida del Vista and dashed down the street after the car.

‘Going Pretty Fast’

“At this point, the vehicle was going pretty fast,” said Lt. Art De La Cruz. “She opens the door, is able to steer the vehicle away from traffic toward the curb and turns it off. The woman is definitely unconscious.”

Bertha C. Kohout, 85, of Corona was driving her daughter’s car out of a shopping center when she passed out, De La Cruz said. Her husband, Richard, was unfamiliar with the vehicle. With his wife slumped over onto him, the 87-year-old man could not figure out how to stop the car.

That’s where Shellie came in.

“I was planning on going home and having cake and presents and stuff, nothing too terribly exciting,” Shellie said Thursday. “I thought I was going to get in trouble for being late, but I told my mom I had a good excuse.”

De La Cruz said Shellie’s presence of mind helped avert a possible disaster. “Considering the age factor of the gentleman, there’s a possibility of more damage to the vehicle, property or a possible head-on collision.”

Shellie was going to a friend’s house and was expected home soon for a family birthday celebration when she saw the car go out of control. It was frightening to try to stop the moving vehicle, she said, but what she found inside it was even worse.

At first she could not find Bertha Kohout’s pulse and thought the woman was dead. Richard Kohout was sobbing and calling out his wife’s name. She later was transported to Circle City Hospital, where doctors said she had suffered a heart attack.

“I found the lady’s pulse and was with her about 10 minutes before the ambulance came, and I was trying to calm her husband down,” Shellie said in a telephone interview. “I was really worried because I thought he might have a heart attack, too, because he was crying. He was really scared for her.”

Trying to Find Pulse

“When I was trying to find her pulse, I didn’t know if it was her pulse or my own shaking,” Shellie said. “Afterwards, it was . . . wow. I went home. I didn’t really tell any of my friends about it or anything.”

But she did tell her parents.

“We are kind of proud,” said Ginny Cecil, Shellie’s mother. “I was a little worried that she was home so late. But after she got home, I thought, ‘That poor kid.’ . . . But it made her feel good that she could help.”

Shellie said she visited Bertha Kohout, who is in intensive care, at the hospital after classes at Corona High School.

“I just talked to her for a minute,” Shellie said. “She’s in critical but stable condition. I asked her if she remembered who I was. She said, ‘Yes, barely.’ ”

De La Cruz said that the police officer who responded to the Kohout accident had recommended that Shellie be commended for her actions Wednesday.

“The department is initiating some type of recognition for the young lady,” he said.