‘He saved my life.' 11-year-old boy calls 911 after hit-and-run driver strikes mom

Lisa Ortiz, a single mother of four from Whittier, recalled the moments before the crash that left her unconscious.

Covered in her own blood, Ortiz woke up to the sound of her 11-year-old son asking her to wake up. A passing car had just struck her as she stood next to parked cars on the street. The driver left the scene.

"I could hear his voice, and I just felt like I was fighting, fighting for him. You know, fighting to live," Ortiz said from her hospital bed.

Surveillance footage from L-A Jack’s Sports Store, located across the street, captured the incident as she emerged from her parked vehicle to take her son to the barbershop.

"I looked out my rearview mirror before I got out of my car, I saw a car far away, you know, in that lane but in the distance," Ortiz explained.

Cruz said she attempted to avoid the vehicle by standing as flat as possible up against her car, but the incoming vehicle managed to her and pinned her up against the driver side door, knocking her unconscious.

Her son, Collin, who was on the sidewalk, immediately rushed into the barbershop, urgently seeking help by dialing 9-1-1. 

"He's really the one that saved my life with no other cars stopping," Ortiz acknowledged, grateful for her son's quick thinking.

Local business owner Jack Ramirez of LA Jack’s Sports Store, deeply affected by the incident, emphasized the tragic necessity for such accidents to spur action in making the streets safer. Ramirez revealed his efforts to push for street parking changes in the area, advocating for limitations during high traffic hours, a measure that could potentially prevent such incidents.

Ortiz, still recovering from the traumatic hit-and-run, did not disclose the full extent of her injuries but remains hopeful about her ability to walk again.

This near-death experience comes as a second blow for Ortiz, who battled and recovered from stage 4 breast cancer just last year. 

"Last night, I sat in my dark room and just cried in gratitude that I'm alive," Ortiz shared.