Boy, 7, leaves hospital months after crash killed mom
MIAMI - The boy whose mother was killed in a deadly crash in Miramar a week before Christmas is now out of the hospital.
Jacob, 7, rode a toy car through the halls of Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital Wednesday as he said goodbye to the people who nursed him back to health.
"He came to us in bad shape. I didn't know if he was going to survive," Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Tamar Levene said.
Doctors say he suffered a brain injury, several leg and pelvic fractures and multiple organ injuries in his liver, heart and kidneys as a result of a crash in Miramar on December 19th.
Dr. Allan Greissman says Jacob was one of the worst trauma cases he has seen in 30 years.
"From his head to his toe, every organ was affected," Dr. Greissman said. "He was in a traumatic coma. We didn't know if he would ever wake up."
But Jacob did wake up and went on to spend more than a month in the ICU. He's also undergone countless hours of physical, occupational and speech therapy.
Sadly, Jacob's mother, 30-year-old Cristina Hernandez did not survive the crash.
"It's been a tough journey for me. The day I walked in here I was a wreck," said Jacob's father Anthony Estrada. "I had just lost my wife in the accident so I was like, 'Please don't take this child, my boy away from me'."
Estrada said his son was looking forward to seeing his dog and sleeping in his own bed.
He is so grateful to the staff at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital for making that possible.
"I'll forever be in your debt. You gave me the chance to bring my boy home like I asked, like I prayed for," Estrada said. "You guys are family of mine for the rest of our life."
Police say a 16-year-old boy without a license was driving the car that crashed into Jacob and his mother.
The teen and his father, Jose Miguel Bravo de la Torre, have since been arrested and charged.