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OGDEN — It started as just running errands during work, but ended with a life-long friendship and an award from police.
Lisa Nielson said she was running errands for work on May 21, 2014, when she came upon an accident near 3500 Wall Avenue. Nielson said she was behind schedule with running her errands, but she knew she needed to stop and help.
“It was interesting, because that day everything just was running really slow,” she said. “The traffic was slow… But I know why everything was slow, because I needed to be there at that accident when it happened.”
Marjorie Medina, 18, was driving southbound on Wall Avenue in a 1998 Honda Accord when a driver heading northbound drifted through the median and hit Medina’s vehicle head-on, according to the Standard Examiner. Medina’s cousin, Candace Pete, and Pete’s 9-year-old son, Sal Palacios, were passengers in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Medina had just graduated from Weber High School the day before, the Standard Examiner reported.
Both Medina and Pete were “pinned in the wreckage,” according to Ogden police.
Nielson said that as a Staker Parson Companies employee, she had received medical emergency training and always had a “jump kit” of medical supplies and an orange vest in her vehicle. She began handing medical supplies to an off-duty fireman who had also arrived on scene.
Nielson said Sal hadn’t been seriously injured like Medina and Pete, and he got out of the backseat of the vehicle and was sitting on the road.
“It was a very scary situation,” she said. “He was laying on the ground crying, and he was saying to me, ‘Don’t let my mom die.’ And all I could think about was, ‘I’ve got to help him and I’ve got to help his mom.’ ”
After asking two bystanders to watch Sal, Nielson said she went and checked on Pete. She said Pete was very concerned about her child and Neilson reassured her that Sal was alright. Pete asked Nielson to stay with Sal, and Nielson “remained at the son’s side and rode with him in the ambulance,” police said.
Medina and Pete were also transported to McKay Dee Hospital, with Medina in critical condition. Nielson stayed with Sal and kept him calm until additional family members arrived.
“I know God was with us that day without a doubt,” Nielson said. “Because I just knew what to say to make it OK. I just knew what to say.”
Medina suffered broken bones, a grade five liver laceration, pulmonary contusions and severe brain trauma, the Standard Examiner said. Nielson said she was afraid Medina wouldn’t survive and gave her contact information to Ogden police to pass along to the family if they wanted to contact her with questions.
The family did contact Nielson and she developed a strong friendship with them during Medina’s 62 days in the hospital.
“I spent lots of nights going up there, seeing the family, seeing Candice,” Nielson said. “I would take them dinner and just come up every night and say hi.”
Nielson was awarded with the Outstanding Citizen Award on March 19 at the Ogden Police Department award banquet. Ogden police Lt. Will Cragun said the awards ceremony happens once a year, and Nielson was among a few people to receive an award.
“We award citizens for acts like this where they get involved and make a difference,” Cragun said.
Nielson said she was honored to receive the award and was blessed with a life-long friendship by being there at the time of the accident.
“I just felt a really good feeling of happiness and gratitude,” she said. “You just never know what somebody’s situation is, so you always should do everything you can to make somebody’s day better. For me, it was just what you do. But it was just a lot of gratitude to be able to be there for somebody.”
