Don Tomás Medina was born 21 June 1803.
He began his public life in 1833 being elected to the Assembly and then senator till 1848. February of the same year he received the Presidency of the Republic as senator until the vice president, Félix Quirós, as it seems the president-elect ran from the charge.
In 1852 he was elected Vice President of the Republic for 2 years under President don Francisco Dueñas. In 1854 he accepts the charge of governor of the Dept. of Sonsonate which included also Santa Ana. He carried his job to the best of his abilities and when he renounced he recommended don Teodoro Moreno to take over.
In 1859 he ascended to the House of Representatives representing the Dept. of Santa Ana which was now separate from Sonsonate.
In Jan of 1860 he took his seat in the Senate, elected through Metapán and Santa Ana till its dissolution by the President Dueñas in 1863.
His philanthropy began 1848 when he was elected Big Brother of the Charity Commission and to the fledgling hospital dedicated all his energies, his intelligence to the degree that the commission realized that this was the man they needed for the job and was re-elected consecutively year after year to the end of his life without losing his enthusiasm. In his memoirs, he refers to his first election as Big Brother:
"...and since that date I have continued to be re-elected in said destiny as founder of the beneficence and humanitarian establishment (the hospital), raised without funds nor profit of any kind, which is of great satisfaction, not for pride but as example, that I not only was able to put into execution, but was also able to leave fixed profits so that it could continue to exist."