Man rescued from Lake Lanier

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - A Good Samaritan is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a drowning teenager from Lake Lanier. Now, the victim's family is searching for the stranger, who disappeared just after pulling him to land.

"The man walked over to him and just pulled him out," mother Samantha Sykes said. "Nobody could get him out. So I think that if that man wasn't there, this mysterious man, it would've been over."

Dontay Lane, 17, is clinging to life after he ventured too far into Lake Lanier Sunday. Sykes said Lane does not know how to swim.

A 911 call obtained by FOX 5 News captured the chaotic scene, where multiple strangers rushed to Lane's help. "Okay, who's giving him CPR?" the dispatcher asked. "People, people are trying to help him," the caller, who did not know Lane, said.

Lane's godmother recalled the bone-chilling moment bystanders finally pulled his body from the water. "When he pulled him out, he was blue, his eyes back of the head, his mouth was open," Teyana Harris said, breaking into tears. "I couldn't look at him."

Lane's family and friends have now turned to the public for two things: 1) Prayers and 2) Help identifying the stranger whom they're calling an angel.

Friends said despite their desperate attempts to pull Lane from the murky water, about 8-feet deep, they simply couldn't, until a stranger stepped in. Witnesses believe the teen would not even have a fighting chance without that stranger, that angel.

"Whoever this man was that got my Godson out [of] this water, can you please get in touch with FOX 5 News so they can get in touch with his mom so she can thank you for helping her son?" Harris pleaded.

Sykes said at one point, Lane's body responded to her voice Monday, but since then, she said doctors have not seen movement or brain activity. She hopes the power of prayer helps bring him home.

"Everybody, everyone, just go out, an army of prayers, and get him back home," Sykes said.