West Virginia State Trooper S.D. Brody walks with Isaiah Davis, 14, left, as emergency crews escort Isaiah Davis’ father, Matthew Davis, to an ambulance after rescuing him from an abandoned grist mill on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, in Ona. Matthew Davis fell over 30 feet down a hole while out fishing with his son.
ONA, W.Va. — As word crackled across the Cabell County emergency scanner that a man and his son were both at the bottom of a 30-foot well Wednesday night, it was hard to tell what the Ona Volunteer Fire Department was going to find as they rolled out Howell’s Mill Road toward the Mud River.
When help arrived shortly after 7 p.m., 14-year-old Isaiah Davis was fighting to keep his dad’s head above water as he drifted in and out of consciousness after striking his head on a pipe during the fall.
As first responders shut the doors on Matthew Lee Davis’ ambulance and started off toward Cabell Huntington Hospital, it was clear the Milton Middle School eighth grader had saved his dad’s life.
“I’ve watched him grow up,” Ona Fire Capt. Jermoy St. Clair said. “He plays football with my son. He’s a great kid, and he stepped up into adulthood today.”
The well is inside an abandoned mill on the Mud River, and though it’s private property, St. Clair said it’s a popular spot for fishing. Davis said he was fishing with his dad around the building when they decided to climb all the way down the roughly six-foot wide well, which has about four feet of water at the bottom…
