21 operations and seven months later, South Dade High School principal Javier Perez still gets choked up about the people who helped save his life.
"Oh my feelings, I'm alive so I'm pretty happy,” Perez said Friday as he met with those who helped him survive.
For the first time, he's coming face to face with paramedics like Karen Rios. She held his hand the day an SUV barreled onto his son's little league field last April.
Investigators say the driver registered a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit. The crash left Perez badly wounded and trapped underneath the car.
"We just wanted to quickly transport him without causing any more damage,” said Rios.
Rios and her team rushed Perez to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where doctors gave him 100 blood transfusions the first day. They later amputated both his legs to keep him alive.
"His will to live was off the charts,” said Dr. Mark McKenney.
This morning, doctors gave Perez a medal to celebrate what he's most grateful for: survival.
"I think it's made me, my family and loved ones stronger and I think it's going to continue building our faith and our relationship for each other," Perez said.
Perez told us his family will spend this Thanksgiving feasting with the firefighters who came to his rescue.
"Because of them I'm here today and it's something that I'll remember for the rest of my life,” said Perez. “My family will, my friends."
While he's not sure when he'll be back on the job at South Dade High, he's looking forward to it. Perez hopes to be getting around on prosthetic legs by May. He says he left his high school walking, and that's how he'll return.
