WSET.com - ABC13Gladys Nurse Saves North Carolina Officer's Life

Reporter: Dhomonique Ricks l Videographer: Todd Densmore

Chatham, VA - A Virginia woman is being hailed a hero after quite possibly saving a police officer's life. Jessica Elliott of Gladys was traveling to North Carolina to pick up her son when she saw a horrific accident.

A Cary police officer on a motorcycle collided with a pickup truck on Highway 55. Elliott jumped right into action.

"Out of nowhere a truck came across in front of him and he ran right into the passenger side door," Hargrave Military Academy's head nurse Jessica Elliott said.

Elliott watched it unfold Friday. 

"He flipped up into the air over top of the truck which is what probably saved him," Elliott said.

She says the driver of the truck made a left turn in front of Senior Officer Chad Penland and hit him at full speed.

"I could see the way that he hit, that he was going to be in pretty bad shape," Elliott said.

She pulled her car over and ran to help. It was not a pretty scene.

"He was bleeding through his outfit and his face where you could see, his face was pretty badly damaged," Elliott said.

"I was really fearful that he was going to die," Elliott said. "He kept asking if he was going to die because he couldn't breathe and I said 'no.'"

She maintained her composure and went to work on his airways. Then, other obstacle.

"There was gas starting to leak out of the motorcycle and we needed to get that away from us," Elliott said.

Bystanders moved it. Elliott's main focus was the man in front of her.

"All he could see was my orange shirt and all I could see was his eyes," Elliott said.

The orange shirt showing the school colors of Hargrave Military Academy where she works. Ever since that moment, officers dubbed her the "angel in orange."

"They didn't know who I was they just knew I have a very bright orange florescent shirt on," Elliott said.

Elliott believes she was supposed to be there.

"If you believe in God, you don't believe in coincidences. That's where I was supposed to be, to do what I was supposed to do," Elliott said.

Elliott says she was two blocks away from her exit.

She says Officer Penland is in stable condition at Duke but has a long road ahead of him.

She tells ABC 13, rescue workers say he would not have survived without her medical support until paramedics arrived.