IN THE NEWS: A Texas college student returned to Orange County to thank the UCI Health burn and trauma teams for saving his life after a fiery car crash last December took both his legs below the knee and left him severely burned.
Calling the trip his “staying alive birthday celebration,” Jackson Gutierrez met Monday — the first anniversary of the car crash on Newport Coast Drive — with Dr. Victor Joe, chief of the UCI Health Regional Burn Center, and Dr. Jeffry Nahmias, a UCI Health trauma surgeon and surgical intensive care unit director, to express his gratitude for their care.
“This has been a full-circle healing experience for me,” Gutierrez told the doctors during the visit, which was captured by NBC 4 News. “I wouldn’t be here without them and all of the team. From the bottom of my heart, I want you to know how much I appreciate you. I should have lost my life.”