Carnegie Hero Darby Bicking poses with Hero Fund Director of Operations Melissa Brock after Brock presented her the Carnegie Medal in a April 13 ceremony held at the Coatesville (Pennsylvania) Country Club.
In 2020, Bicking, then 15, saved a young girl from an attacking dog at horse-riding camp in Coatesville.
“Darby has been awarded the Carnegie Medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission,” Brock said in an interview after the presentation. “It’s people who risk their own personal safety to save a life, to help another person. So that’s what Darby did.”
On Aug. 18, 2020, a 95-pound English Mastiff dog bit the 60-pound 8-year-old. Bicking, who was 4’11” and 110 pounds, separated the dog from the girl, but the dog turned to attack Bicking, biting her left arm and then latching onto her leg and dragging her to the ground.
“He was basically playing tug-of-war with my leg,” Bicking, now 18, told reporters.
The center’s director pulled the dog away from Bicking and secured it, and both she and the girl were taken to the hospital for stitches.
Bicking said she was at Disney World when she got the call that she would receive the Carnegie Medal.
“So it is the happiest place on earth, I will say that” she said.