MIAMI (WSVN) - Doctors are celebrating two trauma survivors after they recovered from severe injuries.
As part of National Trauma Survivors Day, the two survivors were reunited Wednesday at Jackson Memorial Hospital with the some of the people who helped save their lives.
“You meet these individuals that are injured, you meet them on the worst day of their life, but they end up surviving, and that’s very inspirational,” registered nurse Luis DeRosa said. “They are some of the most inspirational people you’ll ever meet.”
In November 2019, Pia Orcellet was riding in an SUV with her family on Interstate 95 when they were rear-ended, which caused them to lose control.
Pia had a traumatic head injury and damage to her lungs and liver.
She coded in the operating room and was later put into a medically-induced coma.
After daily physical and occupational therapy for months, she was finally able to walk out of the hospital.
Courtney Holmes, meanwhile, was visiting his grandmother in 2019 when a stray bullet hit him.
It went through his colon and liver, and he had major internal bleeding.
“The bullet did a lot of damage inside my body,” Holmes said.
After two months in the hospital and intense physical therapy, the star football player at Columbus High School was able to go home.
He has since completely recovered and now plays football at Lake Erie College in Cleveland.
“I really was just motivated to get back on the field,” Holmes said. “The doctors were giving me a lot of courage every day, telling me that I would be able to get back on the field, and they would get me back to 100%.”
Each year, more than 5,000 trauma patients are treated at both Jackson South Medical Center and Jackson Memorial Hospital.
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