60 minutes overtime
and this is the metal right yeah this is the carnegie medal this week on 60 minutes we're doing
a story about something that very few people have ever heard of but it's been around for 117 years
it's called the carnegie hero medal it was endowed by andrew carnegie the steel magnate back in the
early part of the 20th century and he wanted to honor americans and canadians who had acted in
heroic ways to save the lives of others the cash award that comes with the carnegie medal is 5 500
but in many cases the commission gives away a lot more than that we also pay for funeral costs fully
for for a hero that is killed in the act we pay any medical costs for any injury that they incur
to include psychological after effects ptsd we don't present a medal and walk away we stay there
we stay there for the hero's lifetime and sometimes you know far beyond the current
president of the carnegie hero commission is eric zarin who is a former secret service agent we're
a support system for them not just financially but carnegie wanted to make sure that they did
not suffer as a result of their split-second decision to put their life in danger for another
human being our producer on this story aaron weiss talked to 50 carnegie heroes to find the
three that we were going to include in our story on 60 minutes nearly all of them told us that they
reacted without thinking that they didn't spend any time thinking about the danger to themselves
they just reacted kind of a reflex of character if you will we often celebrate these heroes of course
but for them heroism can have serious consequences one of the heroes we talked to terryanne thomas
worked as a civilian clerk in the property room of the topeka kansas police department and one day a
man apparently agitated came in and demanded his bicycle back the man attacked a police officer he
beat that officer bloody knocked her unconscious and when terrianne saw what was happening she
left the security of the room that she was in and jumped into the fight and pulled the man away
i had a lot of bruising i had a concussion a severe concussion ptsd i had a hard time
i still have a hard time tell me about that it's to the point that i had to leave the job
i saw a therapist what have been the symptoms of post-traumatic stress for you nightmares
fear a lot more than i had before i trusted people i trusted situations you know i've i felt safe
i can honestly say i don't feel safe everywhere anymore one of the heroes we interviewed is
pete poncer a federal administrative judge who was on vacation in 2015 on a beach in north carolina
when someone came to him and said that there was a boy drowning offshore well poncer has said
that he didn't think about it he just ran out and jumped into the water and swam 150 yards to reach
the young man and pull him back to shore and pete poncer was never able to get out of his mind the
fact that a second young man was also drowning but he was unable to save him the next day when
i was at the police department and they told me about the second boy not surviving they said pete
you got one and you should always be proud of that dwell on getting the one
and i always appreciate that
but still a part of me feels a bit incomplete for not getting the second boy one of the striking
things that pete bonser told us was that back when he was in his 20s he was in the military
and when he came back he found that he was suffering with symptoms of ptsd post-traumatic
stress disorder after his rescue of the boy offshore he began having those feelings again what
would you like people to understand about the kind of post-traumatic stress that you've experienced
i learned that it's okay to say look i really should talk to someone there is a way to get
better and work your way through this and that's how you do it by talking to someone
and it can be a family member a partner a counselor a church elder but just sitting in a
dark room isn't going to make you better and in my 50s i knew enough then to heal the injuries that
are in here and the injuries that are up here and it's okay to take the time to heal those injuries
despite some of the difficulties that many of these heroes feel after their heroic
act they all told us that they would do it again without thinking about it because they found that
it was one of the greatest ways that they could show their love for their fellow human beings
what have you learned about yourself i've learned that i have courage where i didn't think i did
i would do it again in a heartbeat