They had never met before.
Eugene and Emily Chianelli lived on one side of Smith Mountain Lake and Davis Daniel and his mother lived on the other.
But that changed one evening in August.
Davis, a high school senior, was outside his home
practicing lacrosse when he heard cries for help — they were coming
from Eugene.
Eugene’s wife Emily had been docking the boat the
two were in when she fell into the water. Eugene, who is in a
wheelchair, said he kept calm and called for help.
Unsure of what he would find Davis, 17, raced over.
“I looked beneath the dock and jumped in and
pulled her out,” he said. “I didn’t 100 percent know what to do, but I
knew I had to do something. I couldn’t be there and just do nothing.”
Davis got Emily out of the water and performed CPR until help arrived.
Looking back on those moments, he said he was scared.
“I was just thinking how bad it could have been,” he said.
Today, Eugene said his wife is recovering nicely.
She broke her arm and spent some time in the hospital after the
accident. She’s now getting physical therapy for her injury.
“I would say she’s slowly returning to normal,” he said.
Eugene didn’t want to think about what would have happened without the quick action of Davis.
“We’re not going to talk about that,” he said.
When Davis arrived at the scene, Eugene recalled telling him that Emily had gone under.
“He didn’t hesitate to dive in about 8 feet of
water and go down to retrieve her and pull her to shore,” Eugene said.
“He was able to think clearly and do what had to be done without
hesitation.”
Eugene later called Davis’ mother, Cathie Daniel,
from the 17-year-old’s cellphone to let her know what had happened,
which initially was jarring. Cathie was not home and when she saw her
son calling, and answered to find a strange man on the other end of the
phone, she was immediately concerned.
“You think he’s dead on the side of road,” she said.
But Eugene explained what had happened.
“There’s a little bit of disbelief to it,” Cathie
said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all he had [the] presence of mind to
have composure to do what he needed to do.”
She said when her son arrived, Emily was unconscious in the water and pinned under a dock.
“It was not a good situation,” Cathie said. “It absolutely makes you think.”
The Chianellis, who have lived on the Bedford
County side of Smith Mountain Lake for 13 years, had never met the
Daniels, who have lived in their home seven years, until that evening,
Aug. 20. They were visiting a friend who is a neighbor of the Daniels to
do a favor at the time of the accident.
Cathie, a single mother, described her son as
focused and self-disciplined. He is a senior at the Roanoke Valley
Governor’s School and Franklin County High School and also plays on
three lacrosse teams.
“He’s been a model child for me: focused,
thoughtful, smart but not condescending,” she said. “He’s just a lot of
fun to be with.”
News of Davis’ quick action and calm has gradually spread.
“I think it’s good [that] people remember the good in other people,” Cathie said.
“There’s just so much where people grab onto bad. It’s good to have something to celebrate.”
Davis also wrote an essay about the experience
for his English class in response to a prompt to write about a personal
experience and its effect on him. In his essay Davis wrote in detail
about the incident, including his feelings once the paramedics arrived.
“Nothing can compare to the feelings of intense
relief and empowerment I felt when I realized that not only was she no
longer my responsibility, but also recognized the fact that I was the
catalyst that ensured her survival,” he wrote.
“This sense of euphoria was short-lived, however, and was quickly overwhelmed by the fear of what may have been.”
Cathie said her son doesn’t understand the
recognition that the experience has caused. Davis said he is
uncomfortable with the attention.
“I wasn’t really looking for any recognition, I
suppose, so it’s kind of unexpected,” he said. “It just doesn’t really
feel like I should be recognized for doing the right thing.”
