HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – May is National Trauma Survivors Month and on Wednesday, a group of trauma survivors reunited with the first responders and the doctors who helped to save their lives.
One of the former patients was the sole young survivor of a devastating crash in Miami Gardens.
Seven-year-old Cyrus Rankin almost didn’t live to see the day.
On Feb. 8, police said he was in a car with four other children and their grandmother when another driver, identified as 25-year-old Antonio Wilcox Jr., slammed into them going 99 mph at Northwest 170th Street and 37th Avenue.
Ka’Myra Graham, 13; Ireanna Johnson and Kamari Graham, both 10; Azariah McCall, 8; and Rosa Mary Jones, 51, all died.
Cyrus, a friend of the children, made it out seriously hurt and medics from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue took him to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. He and his mother reunited with those first responders there on Wednesday.
“No mother wants to go through what I went through, seeing a child in a coma for five days,” his mother, Destiny Rosa, said. “It’s a bittersweet feeling. I love that he’s here with me still.”
Cyrus is now thriving. Rosa said he enjoys cheering on the golden state warriors and she cherishes every day with him.
“We bring our patients back who were (going) through the worst of times,” Dr. Andrew Rosenthal, the hospital’s trauma director, said Wednesday. “We give them the opportunity to meet the paramedics (who) took care of them, providers, rehab doctors.”
Wilcox, of Naples, is facing more than a dozen felony charges after the crash, including five counts of vehicular homicide.
His next hearing in Miami-Dade court is scheduled for July 8.