Man awarded prestigious Carnegie Medal for saving 73-year-old woman from alligator attack

A man who jumped into a South Carolina lagoon and saved his 73-year-old neighbor from a 10-foot alligator in July 2020 was recently awarded the prestigious Carnegie Medal.  Kenneth Brian McCarter was one of only 17 Americans who received the honor in 2021. 

The medal is given throughout the United States and Canada to "those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others."

Last summer McCarter and the neighbor he saved, Carol S. DeLillio, recounted the story to The Island Packet around the one-year anniversary of the incident and celebrated DeLillio's recovery. DeLillo has undergone a number of surgeries to fix her leg since the attack but is now able to walk again.