MIAMI (WSVN) - A Miami-Dade Police officer had the opportunity to reunite with the team of medical professionals who saved his life after he was badly injured in a violent crash.
It has been a year since the wreck that almost took MDPD Officer Matthew Larsh’s life.
7News cameras on Wednesday showed the moment Larsh embraced one of the doctors who helped him during the trying time.
Larsh expressed his gratitude to all of those who made his recovery possible from the April 21, 2022 crash.
“The best family, my wife and my son, and I’ve had the best family in terms of my colleagues that are all here in this room today that helped make that happen,” he said.
Authorities said Larsh, a motor officer at the time, was on his way to training when an SUV crossed into his path, which left him no room to avoid the violent impact that sent him flying from his motorcycle.
Surveillance video captured the moment of impact at Northwest 36th Street and 53rd Avenue in Miami Springs.
“The people with this kind of injury, they [tend to] die at the scene, just from the pure impact, it can tear that artery,” said Dr. Antonio Marttos Jr, a trauma surgeon at Ryder Trauma Center.
“You had a pretty bad injury to your aorta, which is the largest artery you have in your body,” said Dr. Tony Shao, a vascular and endovascular surgeon who treated Larsh. “It can be pretty life-threatening, but luckily, in this case, you came in alive.”
Doctors said Larsh also had internal bleeding, and his hip bone was essentially split.
“After Matt somersaulted through the air, this was Matt’s pelvis,” said Dr. Steven Kalandiak, an orthopedic surgeon who treated Larsh, as he showed reporters a reproduction of the victim’s shattered bone. “What Dr. Shaw did was put pins in the front to bring it close and put a screw in the back to put the pelvis back together.”
Larsh praised the work that Miami-Dade Fire Rescue did at the scene of the crash and the work the doctors did at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
“I’m eternally grateful to everybody here that’s in the room for this, and I’m eternally grateful for the doctors, the fire staff that was in that day and all police officers and motormen that are in this room today,” said Larsh.
In total, he spent three weeks initially at Ryder Trauma Center, has had 13 surgeries and was in rehab for three months. He was told he wouldn’t walk for a year.
“Very grueling, exceptionally painful,” he said.
Support from those around Larsh pushed him to walk two and a half months after the life-changing crash.
Larsh’s latest surgery was on his big toe. He hopes to return to normal in the next three to six months.
Larsh has since been transferred to investigate traffic homicides.
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