CUTLER BAY, Fla. – A Florida Highway Patrol trooper on Tuesday thanked the people who saved his life in March after he was struck by a car during a speed enforcement detail on the Dolphin Expressway.
Carlos Rosario was up and walking around inside his rehab hospital as he got the opportunity to thank his rescuers.
"There's nothing I can say that would tell you how much gratitude I have and love for you guys," Rosario said. "You guys will always be my brothers, seriously."
Authorities said Rosario was standing near a car that was pulled over on the shoulder of the Dolphin Expressway when Hugo Olivares, who was texting and speeding, plowed his car into the trooper and two patrol cars.
Rosario was flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.
"Obviously, all of your external stuff was broke. Obviously, you hit your head, but your brain was still working. You were working with us, so we had hope for you," Miami-Dade Fire Rescue flight medic Michael Kidd said.
The air rescue crew who responded to the scene saw Rosario on Tuesday for the first time since the crash.
"This is very special for us as well, and to have such a positive outcome where he's walking, he's talking -- his mental faculties are all there," flight medic Enrique Gonzalez said.
"We get stuck hitting the worst of the worst a lot, so this is an amazing success story," Kidd said.
Since he was released from the hospital, Rosario has been staying at a rehab hospital in Cutler Bay, but he says he believes that he should finally be going home in the next 20 days.