Colleague Pays Homage To Doctor Killed While Helping Accident Victims

DETROIT (WWJ) -  "This is a bigger loss than anything, I or my wife, have sustained. We saw Cindy ... every other week," said Dr. Michael Eichenhorn, of his friend and colleague of Dr. Cynthia Ray.

Eichenhorn, a Henry Ford Hospital friend and colleague of Ray, who died Wednesday, from injuries sustained as she stopped on the freeway to help at the scene of an accident -- spoke about his friend -- saying she was like a daughter to him.

Eichenhorn telling WWJ's Sandra McNeill that Ray was a special woman,
who rescued dogs few could love -- was a dog-sled racer and a singer in a rock band, along with being a respected doctor in the pulmonary care unit.

"She used to take money out of her own pocket for people who didn't have gas money to get home or were needing a meal on the way home from procedures," recalled Eichenhorn.

He says Ray never regained consciousness after the being struck by the car that also injured high school student, Sean English, who was helping at the scene.

"It's ironic that the original kids are unhurt and the people who stopped to help them --- have devastating, one fatal, injuries," he said.

Ray was struck by a teen driver while helping at the scene of a rollover crash on I-96 Sunday night.

"The driver of the car that struck her is probably three or four beds down," says Eichenhorn, "in the ICU at Sinai Grace, from where Cindy was, we feel their pain, they feel our pain. This was an accident, there was no intoxication, it was one of those things that sometimes happen."

Eichenhorn says as an organ and tissue donor -- Ray's death will help save dozens of lives.

The teen who struck the pair remains in critical condition.

There will be a public visitation Friday night from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at Schrader -Howell Funeral home in Plymouth.