by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Sagamore Hills -- When Daisy Ely went for a walk in the park with her husband and son last October, it would eventually lead to her being hailed as a hero.
The American Red Cross of Summit and Portage Counties presented the Scenic Point Road resident a distinguished hero award at a March 2 awards banquet. On its Web site, the Red Cross chapter cited the comfort Ely gave 13-year-old neighbor Nicholas Gedeon during his rescue after he fell about 150 feet from the top of a ravine near his home Oct. 21.
At the time of the accident, the Elys were walking on the nearby Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, close to where Nicholas landed.
"Despite her own fears for Nicholas, Daisy reassured the boy and kept him awake and conscious," states the Web site.
Township Police Chief David Hayes said he submitted the paperwork for the award on the recommendation of township dispatcher Scott Barrett, who handled the 911 call from Ely.
"I thought she did a fantastic job staying with the young man for 90 minutes during the rescue," said Hayes March 8.
Nicholas, an eighth-grader at Nordonia Middle School, suffered an injured spleen, a broken elbow and wrist, was temporarily in a wheelchair with a hip injury and had to have a head laceration closed with stitches and staples.
Now, nearly five months after the accident, Nicholas, who turned 14 on March 3, is doing well. His mother Charlene said he only needs to have some pins removed from his elbow, probably within the next six months.
"He's doing great," she said. "He's pretty well fully recovered. He's been back in school for about seven weeks."
Gedeon said that when she first heard that her son had fallen into the ravine, she was not confident about his recovery.
"My first thought was that he was dead," she said.
Nicholas said he slipped on some wet rocks, slid down about five or 10 feet, then fell straight to the bottom onto soft wet ground.
Ely said she and her husband Don were walking along the trail in the late afternoon while their 12-year-old son John was ahead around a bend ahead of them. She said Nicholas called down to John just before he slipped.
"[John] watched him fall," she said.
She and her husband came around the bend a moment later, ran over to Nicholas, and Daisy called 911 and Charlene Gedeon, who had just arrived home from work.
Then, while Emergency Medical Service personnel rappelled down the ravine and worked to secure Nicholas into a rescue basket to lift him out, Daisy stayed with him. She said she kept talking to him, attempting not only to comfort him, but keep him from losing consciousness.
Meanwhile, Don Ely, who Daisy and Charlene said deserves equal credit, constantly climbed up and down a nearby steep hill to act as a go-between for his wife at the bottom and Charlene Gedeon at the top.
"Her husband was great too," said Charlene. "He let me know that he was badly hurt, but was awake."
Nicholas said he never lost consciousness and having Daisy there made things much easier.
"She was putting a coat over me to make sure I wasn't cold," he said. "And she kept saying, 'Don't fall asleep, stay awake.'"
While they spoke about what happened in the Gedeon house on March 5, Charlene said she greatly appreciated what Daisy, Don and the rescuers did.
"I just have so many people and things to be thankful for and I'm so grateful you were there when I couldn't be," she told Daisy.
Daisy said she initially did not want to be nominated for the award, but now feels "it was really nice closure." She added, however, that the most important thing is the story has a happy ending.
"I'm really glad Nicholas is OK," she said. "He's a great kid and we love him."
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169