Canaan Family Saves Life Of Child Who Nearly Drowned

A Canaan family is being credited with saving the life of a child who nearly drowned in a Bangor hotel pool.

The Portland Press Herald reports that Lola Davis originally booked the room at Fairfield Inn and Suites because she was going to be working at Eastern Maine Medical Center on New Year's Eve and didn't want to drive all the way home. But, before the holiday arrived, she was transferred to another department and had the evening off. So, she and her husband Scott decided to keep the reservation and treat their three daughters to a dip in the hotel pool for New Year's Eve.

Maybe it was destiny taking a hand in things when the family was sitting in the hotel's hot tub, and their daughter Brianna stood up to cool off at about 9:45 that night. She noticed a figure in the pool and asked her parents if that girl was swimming or if she was drowning. The child, who appeared to be about five years old, was lying, motionless, on the bottom of the pool.

Lola jumped in the water and, with Scott's help, got the girl out of the water. She'd just recently taken a CPR course and so started doing chest compressions. It wasn't long before the girl's face twitched and she started expelling water from her lungs. By the time paramedics arrived, her color had returned and she was taken to the hospital to be checked out.

Bangor Police gave the Davis family a Challenge Coin, which is given out to people who help the department in some way. Lola Davis told the PPH that she never got the girl's name, but hopes that they can meet again someday so she can see the child in better circumstances.