East Manatee firefighter goes 'above and beyond' to rescue Myakka City woman

It was the greatest gift Myakka City's Karen Guest had ever received, but she didn’t know the name of the giver.

She was unconscious Feb. 6 when East Manatee Fire Rescue firefighter Daniel Lane pulled her from her submerged car, which had veered off State Road 70 and lay upside down in the waters of a creek just east of Uihlein Road in Lakewood Ranch.

It was only after she found out Lane was going to be presented with East Manatee Fire Rescue's Lifesaving Award did she learn the name of her rescuer.

Although she still was recovering from the accident, which left her with a minor, a hematoma and a damaged trachea, Guest went to the awards presentation April 18 at Station 1. News of the ceremony came from friends of her son, Christian Guest. 

“That was how God answered prayers, because I had been saying, ‘How do we find the people that rescued me?” she said. “I wanted to at least tell them 'Thank you' and have a name. I am ever so grateful for Daniel Lane. He went above and beyond.”

Lane said that since the meeting, the Guests have taken him into their family. “This is by far the most impactful thing that's happened to me in my entire career, probably my entire life,” he said.

However, Lane said that he doesn’t attribute the award to his own actions alone but to the entire team that arrived on the scene, with everything coordinated just right.

“I've analyzed this call thousands of times in my head, and everything went perfectly,” said Lane, 39, who has been with East Manatee Fire Rescue for 17 years.

“My tribe was excellent,” he said. “I just happened to be the person who actually went in the car.”

The call

For Lane, the events of that night began in an unassuming manner. Lane and his fellow firefighters were chatting together at Station 8, at the intersection of S.R. 70 and Bourneside Boulevard. The subject turned to swimming, with Lane mentioning that he disliked springs because of the cold water.

When they received the call about 8 p.m., the firefighters rushed westward down S.R. 70 to its intersection with the creek. There, they found numerous witnesses standing in front of the creek, where the back tire of an upside-down, submerged car was protruding from the water. Witnesses said the car had veered off the road attempting to avoid a deer, which Lane said had been struck anyway.

Lane said one witness had attempted to check into the car, which was a Pontiac 2002 Grand Prix, but was afraid of becoming trapped underneath it on the sloping river bottom on which it was located.

Lane said the driver of Engine 681, Mike Kish, quickly set up lighting for the scene and handed him a Halligan bar, which is a forceable entry tool. Lane used the bar to break a back window of the car, which was already filled with water.

Having not expected the call to involve a submerged vehicle, Lane was dressed in full firefighting gear, which was cumbersome and not well suited to swimming. He entered the murky water and swam in through the window, feeling his way through the dark interior. He said with the vehicle being upside-down, the experience was disorienting.

When he reached the front seat, he found a Guest, whom he carried back through the interior and onto the shore.

By the time he had returned with Guest, firefighter Ben Guth had prepared medical equipment. Finding no pulse from Guest, they began performing CPR.

Lane said that Guest was submerged in water between eight and 12 minutes. He said that in similar situations, where a person's heart fully stops, the chance of survival is low.

Guest, who is now living with her best friend Karen Davidson in Sarasota as she recovers, said she was grateful that Lane did not allow it to affect his course of action.

“He did not look at someone and say, 'She's dead,'” said Guest. “He didn’t walk away. He proceeded to do everything he had been taught to do, to bring someone back. I am very grateful because I feel like Daniel went above and beyond and that he felt like he needed to do something — and he did. And what he did was he saved my life.”

The recovery

Guest was taken to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and then transferred to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Guest had slammed her head during the crash.

With Guest breathing only through the help of a ventilator, the Sarasota Memorial Hospital's staff told her family that they should be prepared to say goodbye because they did not detect any brain activity.

But her niece, Rachelle Eavis, said she was convinced Guest would survive. Guest said Eavis “rallied my children to pray and to have hope and to believe for a miracle.”

“I had never felt more sure about something,” Eavis said.

By 9 a.m. the next morning, Guest was moving and breathing. By 10:30 a.m., doctors had performed a CT scan, and they discovered that despite the minor stroke and the hematoma, her brain activity was normal.

As Guest’s condition improved, it was difficult for her to remember what had taken place. In the days that followed, each morning the events had to be explained to her, and she compared the situation to the one portrayed in the movie "50 First Dates."

Guest said her family still laughs about that comparison.

She said her memory has improved and that doctors expect her to make a complete recovery with time. She still has some memory loss, dizziness, vertigo and reduced physical strength. She received a tracheotomy and, for the time being, breathes through a valve, due to a damaged trachea.

The accident has left her with other hardships. She said her car insurance, which was minimal, did not provide coverage for the one-car accident. She is without a job, though she plans to return to her job as a cook at Solomon’s Castle in Ona.

But her life also has changed in another way as she has an ongoing friendship with the firefighters.

She repeatedly gathers with them and estimates she has made them 15 dozen cookies. She said the firefighters have asked about having dinner with her family.

“It's just been an amazing ride,” Guest said.

She now urges people, when they hear sirens from a fire truck, to think about the significance and how "what they do is put their lives on the line to save someone.”

Lane said that although he is honored to receive an award, his true reward has been to meet Guest and her family. He said it is rare for firefighters to meet people they have rescued, and he knows some staff members with 20 or 30 years of experience who have never had the chance to do so.

He knows his job is helping others, regardless of whether he has the opportunity to receive their thanks.

“I like how I get to give back to the community, and when I leave, it's going to be better than before I got there,” he said.

Guest said she is looking forward to trips back to Montana to visit family there and to enjoy activities like whitewater rafting.

Most of all, she loves still being here to be with her family.

“That night, my family did not give up on me,” she said, calling them “pieces of my heart,” as she tags them on Facebook.

Her family remains grateful to Lane.

“Because of what Daniel Lane has done, we still have our mom, grandma, aunt, sister, great aunt,” said Christian Guest.

He said that he is receiving a tattoo in honor of Lane. Although the design is not finalized yet, it will feature Lane’s badge or engine number, with a scenic backdrop and the figure of a firefighter carrying a woman from the water.

“Just a reminder to thank him every day,” he said.