FRESNO (KMJ) — A Fresno County Sheriff’s Deputy has been honored for saving the life of an individual on a mountain-side last year. The Exchange Club of Fresno presented Deputy David Raquenio their ‘Top Cop’ award on Thursday, for his actions last year just south of Squaw Valley.
“It was a CHP advisement of a no-details vehicle accident, in the area of Sand Creek and Ennis, in eastern Fresno County”, starts Deputy Raquenio.
But what was initially reported as a traffic accident, turned into a life-saving endeavor. When they arrived, they found that the incident had taken place on private property and could only be accessed by all-terrain vehicles.
“When I went a ways down Sand Creek, I saw a young man by the side of the road that was flagging me down”.
He pointed the Deputy in the direction of a mountainside: there he found a vehicle on its side and the driver severely injured.
“Started just assessing him”, continued Deputy Raquenio. “He didn’t have a lot of visible injuries other than maybe some scratching. The one that concerned me the most was on his chest.
“I put my ear on his chest to see if I could hear his breath sounds, and they were very shallow. So I knew he most likely had some major internal injuries”.
An ambulance was requested, and after using a rope system to haul him up the mountainside, driver Bryce Diaz was rushed to the hospital. He’d suffered a torn aorta, and after open heart surgery is now recovering.
Deputy Raquenio followed up on his initial recovery after his shift that day, and doctors told him that if it wasn’t for his actions that day Bryce would most likely have died.
“I was able to see him here just a couple weeks ago”, he concluded. “He’s undergone three open heart surgeries, and it’s been a long road of recovery for him. But he’s back, he’s OK, he’s on his feet.
“Mom still has her son, and grandparents still have their grandson, and all that stuff”.
You can hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew below:
