Ohio teen tells how she saved old man from drowning!
MARGATE, Florida - April 4, 2009 - Maria Devito was sunning by the pool last Sunday when she saw an elderly man stagger and fall into the water.
"I just went into the pool and held his head up," Devito, 16, said Saturday. "I was there for maybe five minutes."
The man slowly returned to consciousness and Devito said she helped him out of the pool. He coughed, then was able to walk on his own to the parking lot where an ambulance was waiting.
"My arms hurt for two days afterward," Devito said.
The man, Sigfried Schaire, 76, had suffered a stroke. Saturday afternoon, he was still in the hospital and unable to move his left side, said his wife, Christl Schaire. She and her sister got a chance to meet with Devito on Saturday at a Margate fire station, where Devito was presented a certificate of appreciation from the fire department.
"We were so happy that she was there," said Christl Schaire, who is on vacation with her husband from Germany and was staying at her sister's Margate condo when Sigfried Schaire fell into the pool. She has since rescheduled her flight, with an open-ended ticket while her husband recovers.
"Any time that someone who doesn't do this on a regular basis does this, it's heroic," said Matt Whiteshield, a rescue lieutenant who was one of the first to arrive on the scene.
Devito planned to return home Saturday to Newark, Ohio, where she is a sophomore in high school. She and her family had been visiting her aunt in her Margate condo for her spring break. Devito, who is a cheerleader, said she called all of her friends back home to tell them the news.
"My one friend asked, 'Did they give you anything?'” Devito said. "But really, I wasn't expecting anything. Just that he is okay is good enough for me."
