‘Hours to live.’ 7-year-old whose mom was killed in car crash makes ‘miraculous’ recovery

When paramedics rushed 7-year-old Jacob to the hospital, no one knew if he would survive.

A brain injury. Multiple fractures. Damage to his liver, heart and kidneys.

“From his head to his toes, every organ was affected. He was in a coma, a traumatic coma. We didn’t know if he would ever wake up, ” said Dr. Allan Greissman of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, one of many doctors who treated him during his nine weeks in the hospital.

Jacob Estrada, a second-grader at Somerset Academy Miramar, was severely injured in a fatal wreck near his school. His pregnant mother Cristina Marie Hernandez, 30, an ICU nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital, had just picked him up from school on Dec. 19, just days before the Christmas break when a teenage driver crashed into their car, going more than 100 miles per hour.

Hernandez died in the wreck. Jacob, who was in the back seat, had practically every one of his internal organs and all his limbs, except his left arm, injured.

“He was hanging on for dear life. He had to fight; they gave him hours to live,” said his dad Anthony Estrada. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had just lost my wife in the accident and so I was like ‘Please don’t take my child, my boy, away from me.’”

After resuscitating Jacob, the family’s only child, at the crash, Miramar Fire Rescue rushed him to Joe DiMaggio, where he underwent multiple surgeries and was put on a breathing machine and a feeding tube. His liver was so badly damaged, doctors performed heart surgery to direct some of the blood from his liver to go directly to his heart, according to Greissman.

Doctors said his chances of survival were slim. He was one of the “sickest trauma patients” Greissman has cared for in his nearly 30-year career in pediatric critical care.

Days passed, and eventually, Jacob could breathe on his own. Doctors reduced his medication. He began to move and started physical therapy. Last Wednesday, after two months in intensive care, Jacob was discharged. He drove down the hospital’s corridors in a small red car, staff cheering him on in a celebratory parade. He was finally going home.

“We just can’t wait to go home,” said Estrada. “Be back in our own bed, back in our own home. My son wants to see his dog ... there’s no words to describe the feeling that I get ... you guys [Joe DiMaggio staff] gave me the chance to bring my boy home like I asked.”

Jacob is walking on his own. He can squeeze a ball with his hand. He’s starting to smile and play again. The hospital says his recovery is “miraculous.”

“I came in the other day and he took a Nerf gun and Nerfed me with the Nerf gun,” said Greissman. “That was probably one of the happiest days I’ve had in a very long, long time.”

Jacob’s discharge comes weeks after police arrested Cristhian Bravo Gonzalez and charged him in the fatal crash in the area of Somerset Boulevard and Flamingo Road. Police say the 17-year-old, who is being charged as an adult, was high on marijuana when he rammed his dad’s Lexus into Hernandez’s car, at a speed of 113 miles per hour. He was 16 at the time and didn’t have a license.

His criminal charges include DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury. As of Monday, he remained in the Broward County jail with a bond set at $505,000, an amount his lawyers are asking to be reduced, court records show.

Police also arrested the teen’s father, Jose Miguel Bravo De La Torre, 38, on a charge of permitting an unauthorized person to drive. Court records show De La Torre, who was released from jail, has an arraignment scheduled in March.