On Tuesday night, Jan. 9, the Kamas mayor presented Joe Donnell with the Carnegie Medal for heroism for his actions in August 2022.
A pickup truck plunged into the waters of a rural reservoir in Oakley on Aug. 22, 2022. Two children were rescued quickly, but 9-year-old Paxton Knight was trapped inside.
Donnell, a retired state park ranger who lives in Kamas, was out kayaking when he saw the accident. He pulled off his life vest and swam down after the boy.
He dove again and again into the cold water until he succeeded in pulling the child out of the submerged pickup truck.
Donnell got emotional as he remembered the rescue.
“He was floating against the windshield,” he said. “I pulled him out, I pulled him to my chest and I swam to the surface. He had no pulse, he was blue.”
He and two bystanders did CPR until a life flight helicopter arrived. Paxton was in the hospital for eight days.
“We really didn’t expect him to survive,” Donnell said. “He walked out of the hospital 100% healed…. He [is] a fighter.”
Paxton is doing well, and the Donnell family just celebrated Christmas with him and his family.
Donnell, standing with his wife and daughter, said he’s grateful for the honor and, above all, for the boy’s full recovery.
“This is the highlight of my life,” he said.
Mayor Matt McCormick applauded Donnell’s courage.
“It’s really incredible that we have people like you in our community,” he said.
This year, 16 Carnegie Medals were awarded to civilians who “risked serious injury or death to save others in the act of extraordinary heroism.”
Donnell is the Carnegie Hero Fund’s 10,380th honoree since the award was established in 1904.
