Thanks for Helping Hands, Rescuer Told

Diane Warren was in much worse condition when she first met Jay Ellis last week.

Sprawled on the shoulder of California 163 near Balboa Park, Warren had been thrown from her car after it was forced from the road by another car and then hit by oncoming traffic.

Ellis, an emergency medical technician, was among the first to stop at the scene of the accident, and, if it weren’t for him, Warren could have become a quadriplegic, doctors said.

“I was heading downtown to see a friend of mine, and from there I was going on to school for the evening,” said Ellis, who rarely travels the crowded highway that winds toward downtown.

“All the traffic was slowing down, and I saw that there had been a traffic accident, so I pulled off to the median and got out.

“When I got there, there were quite a few people standing around, and (California Highway Patrol) just arrived, and I told them who I was.

“I started talking to Diane. She was very incoherent, and she didn’t know anything. She didn’t remember what day it was, what time it was, what had happened or anything.

“I told her that she had been in an accident and asked her questions about where she was hurting,” Ellis said.

The 25-year-old Ramona resident recognized that Warren had broken her neck, and braced her neck with his hands until paramedics arrived.

“There were a whole bunch of bystanders, and everyone was trying to be helpful. Some people were trying to get her to move so she would be more comfortable, but unfortunately, that would have been the wrong thing to do,” Ellis said.

After helping paramedics load Warren into the ambulance, Ellis left the scene without giving his name to anyone. Earlier this week, while Warren recovered from her injuries, she learned from Mercy Hospital employees that, without the aid of the unknown paramedic-in-training she would have been a quadriplegic. That was when she decided to try to find him to thank him.

On Wednesday, after a KFMB Channel 8 news story and a Times article on Warren’s tale, friends of Ellis called the television station, who then contacted Ellis and took him to Warren’s hospital bed Thursday morning.

“I said, thank you, it’s so wonderful to meet you,” Warren said.

“He held my hand and gave me a kiss when he left . . . and he’s just the sweetest person,” said the 43-year-old Escondido resident, who can walk on her own power and wears a crown, a brace that keeps her head in place.

“I was starting to feel a little disappointed because I was thinking, ‘Gee, I’m going home today, and I’ll probably never find out who he is.’ It was so exciting to find him before I left,” Warren said.

“People don’t get enough recognition when someone does something nice. If you thank people for nice things, they do them again,” she said.

As for Ellis, he began his first job last Friday as an emergency medical trainee at Air-Evac, a basic life support and advanced life support ambulance service in San Diego County.

“I’ve stopped at accidents before, but I’ve never been there by myself, there have always been paramedics there. This is the first time I’ve done it myself, and it was kind of scary,” Ellis said.

Ellis, who has been a certified emergency medical technician since January, plans to apply for paramedic school next year.

Warren, who was released from Mercy Hospital on Thursday, has high hopes for a full recovery, thanks to Ellis. If all goes well, she will be free from the brace and neck collars within four months.

“I’m at peace now. I feel really, really good that they found him, and I got to meet him face to face. That meant a lot to me,” Warren said.