"Every time I got up to run away, they would bite me and drag me back down," Garza recalled Monday, about a year after the attack on a southeast Houston jogging path.
"I was thinking to myself this was going to be my way to go. I felt I had fought as much as I could," she said.
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| Hero - Charles Jordan |
Then she saw a man coming around the corner who would turn out to be her rescuer: Charles Jordan, a 63-year-old retired database manager for AT&T.
"If he hadn't showed up when he did, I would not be here today," she said.
Jordan's house is close to the jogging trail near Hughes and Riverstone Ranch Road where Garza, 34, was attacked March 5, 2014.
Although Jordan doesn't call himself a hero, on Monday he was among 20 people nationwide recognized as one by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
"I didn't do anything that anyone else wouldn't do," Jordan said Monday after learning that he had been awarded the Carnegie Hero Medal.
The medal recognizes people who risk their lives "to an extraordinary degree" while saving or attempting to save the lives of others, according to the foundation. The recipients are nominated for the medal, and they receive a financial award as well.
"I'm honored and astonished - overwhelmed would be a good word," Jordan said. "It's totally unexpected."
Garza saw the two dogs while she was jogging. She still remembers them locking their eyes on her. Garza grabbed her cellphone and called 911.
"All I could get out was my name. I was being attacked at that time," she said. "All (the 911 operator) could hear were screams for help."
Jordan's wife told him she heard someone screaming somewhere outside. He went outside to investigate and saw the dogs hovering over Garza's body.
"One had her arm and one had her leg. They were literally tearing her apart," Jordan said.
Jordan had left his walking stick in the house but still ran at the dogs, flinging himself on top of them. For a moment, they released their grip on Garza and started biting him.
"I said, 'Get up and run' and she said, 'I can't,' " Jordan said. "Then they let go of me and went back to her."
Jordan picked up one of the dogs that then bit him in the face.
"I threw him and landed on him but he came out from under me," Jordan said.
He continued fighting the dogs, kicking them, punching them, trying to choke them with their collars.
Nothing he could do seemed to faze them. With each defense, they countered with additional attacks.
Jordan threw himself over Garza's body to shield her from the marauding animals. He spotted a nearby electrical power box as the dogs continued biting him.
"I said, 'We have to get on top of that. We have to get off the ground,' " Jordan recalled.
Placing himself between her and the dogs, Jordan helped the heavily bleeding woman climb the power box.
"When she saw the extent of her injuries, she went into shock," he said.
Jordan said one of the dogs came at his wife when she arrived. He said she went back around the corner and started screaming. He said it seemed to distract the dogs. Once the two pit bulls were separated, they seemed to give up the attack. Animal control officers finally arrived at the scene, he said.
The dogs were later put down by a court order, he said.
Garza spent more than a month in the hospital and still has additional medical procedures in her future. Jordan was treated for his injuries and has since recovered.
Garza said she will always have a bond with Jordan. She has called him at least once a month since the attack.
"I am extremely proud of him and thankful he was chosen for this award," she said. "I think he deserves it more than anyone in this world."
(Houston Chronicle - March 30, 2015)
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