Diana Davis: Red Cross Hero

June 1-7 is designated as National CPR and AED Awareness Week. The American Red Cross, along with other National Cardiac Arrest Collaborative members, is stressing that every second counts in cardiac arrest and people can save lives by knowing how to perform CPR and use an AED.

Written by Rose Ellen O'Connor, Volunteer

It was a quiet evening last November when the panicked call came for help. Diana Davis’s 30-something neighbor was having a heart attack and his father-in-law wanted to know if anyone new CPR. Diana reacted on instinct.

She ran across the street and found her neighbor, Bobby Clark, on the floor, his face purple and his eyes rolled back in his head. She pulled up his shirt and put two fingers to his throat looking for a heartbeat. There was none. Then she put her ear to his mouth and listened for breathing. Again, nothing. Finally, she checked his chest and found no movement. She began administering compressions to his chest, just as she learned in CPR class.

He began taking shallow breaths that gradually moved closer together. When the paramedics arrived, they administered shocks to his heart and his normal color returned to his face. They told Diana she had saved her neighbor’s life. Her mother went with Bobby’s wife Jaime to the hospital and the doctors issued the same verdict: if Diana had not administered CPR, Bobby would have died.

“I wasn’t really thinking anything. I just wanted to help,” Diana says.


Knowing that she had saved a life was mind-blowing.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” she says. “He changed my life and I definitely changed his. I feel like I have more purpose. I wanted to be a doctor before but now I know I’m going down the right path.”

Diana, 18, who lives in Gaithersburg and is graduating from Northwest High School, received the Certificate of Merit from the Red Cross at a graduation awards ceremony in May. The American Red Cross in the National Capital Region will also be honoring her at its Annual Meeting on June 6.

Diana Davis with American Red Cross,
National Capital Region CEO, Linda Mathes.

She learned CPR in a life guard class sponsored by the Red Cross. Diana was following in her two older brother’s footsteps, both of whom are lifeguards. She took CPR class again in a first aid class her sophomore year of high school, and was recertified before last summer’s lifeguard season began.

Diana plans to start a Red Cross club at Montgomery College, which she will be attending in the fall.

To see Diana receive the highest Red Cross award, the Certificate of Merit (signed by the President of the United States), click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM3rjHbwbqs