GLENDEVON, St James –

Donovan Quest and his wife Jacinta on Sunday became godparents to five-month-old Michaelia Pottinger, whom Donovan had rescued from a watery death along the Old Folly main road in Discovery Bay, St Ann just two months before.

The happy occasion, which took place at the Glendevon New Testament Church of God in St James, followed on the horrific events of August 12 when the child – then just shy of three months old – her parents Nichola Henry and Michael Pottinger and a family friend found themselves bat-tling for life after the vehicle in which they were travelling plunged over a 70-ft precipice and into the sea.

They were so grateful to Quest, who risked his own life to save the infant, that they invited the couple to be the child’s godparents.

Recalling the harrowing details of that fateful day, Henry, 22, said she had fallen asleep with little Michaelia in her arms when she heard a loud bang. “The next thing I know I was in the sea,” she said.

She immediately realised that the baby had fallen from her arms and was wedged between the seat of the car and the door.

In that same instant she realised too that her boyfriend Michael, who was driving the vehicle, was unable to open the driver’s door.

“He was trying to open his door and it couldn’t open,” she said. She said she was eventually able to open her door and get the baby to him but remembered nothing more as she kept going under the water. “I am shaking now

as I am telling you,” said Henry. “The water was deep,

very deep.”

Enter Quest, a businessman from Black River, who was travelling behind their car.

“We were travelling along the road when I heard a loud bang and I looked through the window and saw a car going over a precipice,” said Quest.

He said the car nosedived into the sea and the next thing he knew a man fell out, two women were holding on and one was throwing a baby to him. “He held unto the baby’s hand but the baby was going under,” recalled Quest. “The baby went under about three times.”

It was at this point that Quest decided to climb down the precipice and into the sea to save the infant.

“It was like I was seeing my own granddaughter,” said Quest. “I said to the Lord if a suh mi fi dead then so it go but mi have to try and save the baby.”He was eventually able to get the infant to land and administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

He then helped the father unto the rocks. “He was crying because he didn’t know where the baby was,” said Quest.

By then the two women had made it to shore and the car was fully submerged. Police then came on the scene and guided Quest who took all four to the hospital.

Kerisha Simpson, who lived nearby, was quick on the scene. She carried the infant in Quest’s car to the hospital. “Everybody did a cry fi di baby,” she said. “Everybody did frighten because she did

a float.”

She said that this is the second time in the 10 years now since she has lived in the area that this has happened.

The police who came on the scene when the car was fully submerged said they were thankful for the assistance of residents, as the incident could have had a fatal ending.