Teen Who Saved Man's Life Among Students Honored With 'Do The Right Thing' Awards
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Christian Roldan, a junior at Booker T. Washington Senior High and a young man of deep faith, says it was simple. God put him where he was supposed to be.
"I'm just a tool guided by love, guided by God, an instrument."
Roldan was among the 10 Miami-Dade County students being honored by the Miami Police Department for their "Do The Right Thing" awards.
What he did, literally saved a man's life. Roldan was driving home after tutoring a classmate in February when he happened upon what he thought was a minor fender bender in Southwest Miami-Dade. He was there before anyone else.
"What I didn't realize at the time is that it had just happened not 10 seconds before and I saw a man on the floor, I kept driving maybe 20 and saw a man's leg he was just bleeding out and dying on the floor and I didn't hesitate and I ran up to him and took off my belt and wrapped it high on his leg and pulled as tight as a could," he said.
The man's leg had been severed from the knee down, he stopped him from bleeding to death.
Tuesday he stood side-by-side with first responders to receive a plaque and special recognition not just for doing the right thing but doing something extraordinary.
Roldan received a mini-tablet, letters of congratulations from both Florida Senators and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C.
His true prize though was something he couldn't receive there.
"A 7-year-old kid has a father now, leg or no leg he has a father."
He visited the man whose life he saved in the hospital shortly after the accident, he said it was, "incredibly emotional."
