Baltimore Mayor Honors Heroic City Teen

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A five-year-old boy is recovering with a fractured skull and broken bones after being run over earlier this week by a dirt bike.

As Mike Schuh reports, one of the reasons the boy is here at all is because of the quick thinking of a 16-year-old.

Phillip Ellison is 16 and a lifeguard at the city pool in Cherry Hill, near the place where earlier this week, a five-year-old was run over by a dirt bike. Ellison didn't hesitate when he realized the boy didn't have a pulse. His CPR saved the child's life.

His mom Glenda is so proud.

"I'm just so glad that everything we taught him, he did listen. He focused, he stayed calm. I'm just so happy for him; that's my baby," she said.

Ellison credits his mom for giving him the tools to stay out of trouble in a neighborhood filled with it.

"She said, `If you do the right thing, good will come to you. You don't have to do stuff to make stuff come to you; you can just sit there and wait for stuff to come to you if you do it the right way, not the wrong way," he said.

Since he was little, his dream has been to become a paramedic.

The fire chief can't wait.

"I would be humbled and honored for you to join our organization and eventually be part of our leadership," he said.

Leadership that started at home.

"Just because of her," Ellison said. "I love her 'cause she does anything in her power to do stuff for me."

The boy also had a broken neck, skull and ribs.

Ellison is a freshman at Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy High School and will be working as a lifeguard in Cherry Hill this summer.