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9-year-old girl breaks into house to save grandmother

4:47
News headlines today: Jan. 18, 2019
Donna Davis
ByAbigail Shalawylo
January 18, 2019, 7:19 PM

A quick-thinking 9-year-old girl may have saved her grandmother’s life when she discovered the elderly woman alone in the throes of a brain aneurysm, and stayed with her until help arrived.

Cayla Davis was dropped off at her grandmother Joyce Ann Davis’ house, in Chester, Philadelphia, at around 7:00 a.m. on Jan. 7.

Cayla’s mother, Donna Davis, watched to see her daughter go through home’s gate, and then drove away.

After her grandmother didn’t come to the door, Cayla knew something was wrong, her mother told ABC News. She walked around the house, trying all of the doors and windows, but everything was locked. She also noticed all of the lights were out, and could hear the phone ringing nonstop inside –- Donna Davis calling to make sure her daughter got in all right.

That’s when Cayla sprang into action.

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Cayla told ABC News that she used a chair to prop herself up, scale the front of the house, and hoist herself through a window above the front door.

“How she got into that window is beyond my comprehension,” her mother Donna told ABC News.

Finally inside, Cayla went upstairs and found her grandmother shaking from a brain aneurysm.

How she got into that window is beyond my comprehension.

Cayla answered her mom’s call once inside.

“Mom come back, please come back," Donna said her daughter told her. I found grandmom upstairs in her bedroom and she’s shaking."

Donna told her daughter to call 911, and immediately turned around and headed back towards the house. Donna, meanwhile, called 911 herself as well.

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The police were also alerted by the house alarm that went off as soon as Cayla broke the window.

You are awesome. You are the best, thank you so much for saving grandmom’s life.

When police arrived, Cayla threw the house keys through the window to let them in.

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Cayla had stayed with her grandmother and asked her questions in an attempt to keep her mind stimulated before the paramedics arrived.

“You are awesome," Donna told her daughter. "You are the best, thank you so much for saving grandmom’s life."

Joyce Ann Davis was transported to the hospital, where, her daughter Donna, said she is getting better every day. The older woman remains in the hospital's intensive care unit.

“As a mom, I am very proud,” Donna said of Cayla.

She said that there’s no doubt in her mind that Cayla saved her grandmother’s life.

Donna said she is always encouraging girl power with her daughter, and has lately been calling the little girl her “she-ro.”

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