HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - May is Trauma Awareness Month and a South Florida hospital celebrated with a special reunion at a South Florida hospital where doctors and their patients shared survival stories.
Pushing past the pain to celebrate life, dozens of trauma survivors reunited with hospital staff and rescue workers at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood who helped them overcome some of the most harrowing experiences of their lives.
“Every day is Trauma Survivor Day,” said Medical Director Dr. Andrew Rosenthal. “In some ways, it’s a big group hug and in some other ways, it’s a cry fest.”
From the scene of the accident to the operating room, doctors are faced with tough decisions.
“We never know who’s going to make it, and the big man upstairs has a plan, but the rest of us can only do what the book says and try to help patients get through the worst times of their lives,” Dr. Rosenthal said.
Anthony Estrada said he got the worst phone call he’d ever received in his life.
“When I got here, I got hit with a bomb that my wife didn’t make it and my son was fighting for his life,” Estrada said.
His wife was killed on impact in a devastating car crash, while his son, Jacob, spent more than two months in the hospital after suffering from multiple serious injuries, which included his brain and heart.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have Jacob here, celebrating that he’s going to third grade,” Estrada said. “He’s doing great because of everybody here, every doctor in the ICU, PICU, everywhere.”
Megan Bishop was the sole survivor of a plane crash near North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines in 2021.
“I broke my ribs, I cracked my spine, I needed stitches in my face and I had hematomas in my arms,” Bishop said. “I tell everyone the biggest injury is a broken heart.”
She lost her only child, her four-year-old son Taylor, who was in the car with her.
Although the event is bittersweet, she realizes she can share her pain with a new community.
“It’s a reminder that I can overcome huge things that were capable of breaking me,” Bishop said. “Hearing everybody else’s story and being able to share the grief and the trauma with them, we really are like a family.”
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