Clackamas man receives award for heroism and life-saving efforts

CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. (KPTV) - John Cerda has now been recognized and awarded the “Lifesaving Award” for the second time for his heroism and life saving efforts in Clackamas County.

Cerda is a forklift driver at the Costco in Clackamas County and sprang into action when a coworker was pinned underneath a forklift in November of 2021.

“About three o’clock I heard some screams that didn’t sound normal and about the fifth scream I knew something was going down,” Cerda said. Cerda is also a volunteer firefighter in Gladstone and said those skills took over when his coworker was hurt.

“We had an employee that was ran over by a forklift and was still pinned underneath the forklift,” he said. “As I ran up I kind of saw what was done to his leg and I knew that we had to get him out of there and I knew that he had to have a tourniquet. I took my belt off because that’s the only thing I had and I just cinched it down above his knee and was able to kind of stop that from bleeding out.” Shortly after that, Clackamas Fire arrived and took the man to the hospital. Cerda said his coworker spent about 80 days in the hospital.

“Jeremy is doing good. I’ve been in contact with him and we have a lot of good coworkers that have been in contact with him helping their families, supplying food for the family and helping around the house,” he said. However, this isn’t the first time Cerda has received this award for his life-saving efforts. In 2016, he and a nurse gave CPR to someone at the store who was having a heart attack.

“I had a great team on both situations and I was very thankful for that,” he said. “We don’t really ask for thanks, it’s just what we train to do. To be recognized and to be given the life saving citizens award, it is amazing and it’s nice to be recognized and I truly appreciate it.”

Copyright 2022 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.