A Florida Keys Girl Was Being Attacked by Pit Bulls. Her Neighbor Is Getting a Medal
Sometimes the real heroes are just regular people who show up when it matters. Donald Lowrie is one of those people.
Lowrie works as a mechanic and generator technician for Monroe County down in the Florida Keys. Back in May 2018 he arrived at a house for what should have been a routine service call. What he walked into was a nightmare.
An 8-year-old girl was being attacked by dogs in her own home. The animals had already turned on Lowrie as he approached chasing him down and causing him to fall down a flight of stairs before one of them bit him repeatedly. Most people would have run. Would have called for help and waited.
Lowrie went back in anyway.
Despite his own injuries he managed to rescue the girl from the attacking dogs. Both Lowrie and the child had to be transported to the hospital for severe injuries requiring surgery. The girl survived because a generator technician decided a service call was less important than a childs life.
Monroe County named him Employee of the Year in 2018. But that wasnt the end of the recognition.
On Thursday Monroe County officials announced that Lowrie was being awarded a Carnegie Medal for Heroic Actions. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission has been honoring civilian heroes since 1904 and their medals arent handed out lightly. You have to do something extraordinary to make that list.
If it wasnt for Mr Lowries actions things may have been much worse, said Assistant County Administrator Kevin Wilson in a press release. Thats about as understated as you can get when talking about someone who got mauled by dogs to save a child.
According to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission website Lowrie joins three other Florida Keys Carnegie Medal heroes. Gertrude Bush who in 1915 saved someone from drowning in Key West at just 16 years old. C Raymond Shook who died in 1970 trying to save a fisherman who fell off an Islamorada bridge. And Patrick McGeogh Jr who in 2006 was honored for saving someone stuck in a submerged car in Texas.
Good company to be in.
The thing about heroes like Lowrie is they dont think of themselves that way. They see a situation. They react. The calculation most of us would make – am I going to get hurt here? – either doesnt happen or gets overridden by something more powerful. Maybe its training. Maybe its instinct. Maybe some people are just wired differently than the rest of us.
We hear so many stories about institutions failing people that its worth pausing when an individual steps up. No organization told Lowrie to put himself between those dogs and that girl. No protocol required it. He just did it.
Both Lowrie and the girl have since recovered from their physical injuries. The emotional scars probably take longer.
But every time that little girl grows up to have another birthday another graduation another milestone she has Donald Lowrie to thank for being there. And now he has a medal to remind him that sometimes doing the right thing when no one would blame you for running gets noticed.
The Carnegie Hero Fund has awarded more than 10000 medals since Andrew Carnegie established it 116 years ago. Donald Lowrie earned his the hard way.
Source: NBC 6 South Florida
