HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - It was a heartwarming reunion between an elderly man and the first responders who freed him after he was crushed by his SUV at a shopping plaza in Hialeah.
Mario Armenteros is 82 years old and in good spirits. The neck and body braces he wears are the only sign that he is recovering from the frightening incident that sent him to Ryder Trauma Center’s intensive care unit on July 27.
When a 7News crew commented that he is looking well, Armenteros replied, “I’m feeling good.”
Cameras captured the moment Hialeah Fire Rescue Division Chief David Rodriguez shook Armenteros’ hand outside the patient’s home, Thursday afternoon.
Armenteros’ recovery has stunned doctors, his family and even some of the first responders who were on hand in the parking lot of Lago Plaza, near the intersection of West 28th Avenue and 68th Street, on that Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t know how he was able to recover from this,” said Rodriguez.
Speaking with 7News in August, Yolanda Corzo, Armenteros’ daughter, described what happened.
“He went under the car to check what was the noise, but what happened was the car was not in park. It was in neutral,” Corzo said, “and so, the car hit him first, knocked him down and ran right over him.”
“You see, I fall like this, right? And then it started crushing me,” said Armenteros.
Corzo said her father spent 25 days at the hospital.
“You’re talking 73 stitches with his head completely open and 23 fractures,” she said. “That’s not easy for an 82-year-old man. He’s a bull.”
And yet, not even two months later, 7News cameras captured him walking, talking and even laughing as he reunited with the firefighters who helped save his life.
“We never really get to see the end results, and sometimes the end results aren’t as positive,” said Rodriguez.
Armenteros was finally able to meet the men whose faces he never saw. He joked he only saw their feet on the day he was rescued.
After living more than eight decades, Armenteros said, life has changed, but some change is good.
“When something happens to you like this, you change. You see everything different,” he said.
Armenteros said, next time, he’s going to be the one who comes here to the fire station to visit them.
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