The awards just keep piling up for the beloved but humble Aurora Township grandfather and street sweeper who made headlines in October after saving a driver whose SUV got stuck on a railroad track with a freight train barreling toward them.
And this latest accolade is a big one, but as far as I’m concerned no big surprise: Lewis Medina has been named a recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission was established in 1904 to recognize those who “risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.” And what happened on Oct. 9, 2021, near Medina’s home by Prairie Street in an unincorporated part of Sugar Grove Township certainly fits that description.
All you have to do is listen to the harrowing 911 call that is attached to the bottom of the official Carnegie webpage for Medina’s award to agree this man was a shoo-in for the honor.
On his way home that Saturday night with his daughter and 5-year-old grandson after visiting a pumpkin patch, Medina had just driven over the BNSF tracks on Barnes Road when he heard what sounded like wheels spinning and soon realized an SUV had turned onto the track and was stuck.
After quickly making sure his family was safe inside his own vehicle, Medina rushed to the window of the driver, who was suffering from insulin shock and barely able to speak or move. It was moments later he heard the sound of a train that, less than a mile away, was thundering toward them at about 40 mph.
With the train sounding its whistle in recognition of the danger and the gates at the nearby intersection descending, Medina began pulling the 72-year-old unresponsive Aurora man from the vehicle, later crediting the “angels of the Lord” for giving him the strength to successfully free him from this death trap and push him down an embankment to safety, just as the train plowed into the SUV and threw it 1,000 feet away.
It wasn’t long after this incredible story, backed up by that emotional 911 recording and sheriff’s reports, made news that Medina received a letter from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announcing he’d been nominated for its coveted award.
Medina, a 60-year-old soft-spoken man of deep faith who turned his life around a quarter of a century ago while in prison on serious drug charges and is now a volunteer jail chaplain himself, was also honored last fall by the Kane County Sheriff’s Department as Citizen of the Year.
And in April he received the Lifesaving Rescue Hero award from the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago at a banquet in downtown Chicago.
Medina was, of course, surprised, honored and as humble as ever, wondering what all the fuss was about because, as far as he was concerned, risking his life even for a perfect stranger is simply how he rolls.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but I do feel unworthy,” he told me on Thursday, a couple days after the winners were announced for the Carnegie Medal. “That’s just how I am. I am very thankful and humbled but I don’t know why everyone is making a big deal out of it.”
Now you can see why, not long after he got that Carnegie nomination letter I predicted he’d soon be receiving this classy bronze medal – and the $5,500 financial grant that comes with it – which is handed out four times a year to those truly worthy of that overused “hero” description.
Speaking of heroes, we seem to have more than our fair share here in Kane County.
At its July meeting, the Kane County Board will present the Carnegie Medal posthumously to the family of Batavia resident Pete Rosengren, who died in 2020 trying to save a 9-year-old boy from drowning in a rip current in the Gulf of Mexico while on vacation.
According to the Carnegie Commission, the Daily Herald executive swam to the child, but they were separated by rough waves, and while the boy was eventually rescued, Rosengren lost consciousness and never recovered.
Rosengren, a husband and father of three, was singled out back in March by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for his incredible act of courage.
“He always put others ahead of himself, all the way to the end,” his friend Joe Shaker had said about Rosengren in a previous story.
Which pretty much sums up how people I spoke with describe Medina.
After watching a November “60 Minutes” segment on Carnegie winners, former Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez, who knew Medina growing up on the East Side of Aurora as well as when he was struggling to turn his life around, could easily see how “what Lewis did was just as incredible” as the acts of courage featured on the show.
Medina told me he was notified of the good news two weeks ago by Carnegie, a call he did not pick up for a couple hours because he was working. Plus, “I am always nervous” when talking to the commission, he added.
When Medina was informed that he was one of 16 selected for the medal, “it took a bit to register,” he said. “Then I got goosebumps.”
And he still is not quite sure what comes next – “it was not a good connection” – except that there would be “a series of events” from the commission and that “they would be in contact.”
Medina has never heard from the man whose life he saved, but has received plenty of calls from people who have been inspired by his story. And he is indeed grateful and humbled, he said, before quickly adding yet again, “I am no hero. I did what needed to be done.”
Still, after listening to the 911 call that’s on his Carnegie web page – a recording he’d heard before – Medina became emotional as one undeniable fact finally hit him.
“For me, it was the first time,” he admitted, “I really felt how close I had been to dying.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
