STORIES OF SURVIVAL: POLICE INJURED IN THE LINE OF DUTY

Miami-Dade Police Officer Carlos Castillo; Miami-Dade Police Officer Jody Wright; Miami Police Officer Antonio Torres; Former Miami Police Sgt. Alberto Garcia; Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus; Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa; Jackson Health System President and CEO Carlos A. Migoya; David Lubarsky, M.D., CEO of UHealth Physician Practice; doctors and nurses from Ryder Trauma Center

For the past 20 years, anytime a police officer in Miami-Dade County was seriously injured there is only one place they turned for medical care – Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. These officers – many of them injured in gun violence and car and motorcycle crashes – say that the doctors and nurses at Ryder saved their lives. 
 
Miami-Dade Police Officer Carlos Castillo was viciously attacked during a traffic stop in 2010. He was hit over the head with a cinder block, kicked and stomped on and then run over with his own police car. Castillo was rushed to Ryder with life-threatening internal injuries and serious brain damage. He spent three and half months at Ryder and 6 months doing physical therapy at Jackson Rehabilitation Hospital – and today he is back on the job.

In 2007, Miami-Dade Police Officer Jody Wright was shot in the leg in an ambush in south Miami-Dade County that claimed the life of one police officer and left two others injured. Wright, who nearly lost her leg, spent 6 weeks recovering at Ryder and has had more than a dozen surgeries. She is back to work as a police officer.

Miami Police Officer Antonio Torres, a motorman, was driving on State Road 836 in 2007 when he was struck by a vehicle driving erratically. Torres was treated at Ryder for several injuries, including damage to the heart, a right temple cranial fracture and a crush injury to the knee. He returned to work more than a year later and is now a bike patrol officer.

In 1994, a driver sped through a red light and slammed into Miami Police Sgt. Alberto Garcia’s police car, sending his vehicle into a nearby storefront. As the car started to smoke, a group of homeless people pulled Garcia from the car. He had several injuries, including a crushed forearm. He was taken to Ryder, where he underwent surgery to repair his arm with a metal plate. Today, Garcia is a Sergeant-at-Arms for the Miami City Commission.

June

26, 2012, 10:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m.

Ryder Trauma Center
1800 N.W. 10th Avenue
Miami, FL 33136

Officers will reunite with the caregivers at Ryder Trauma Center, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

*Media can park in the media lot outside of Ryder.