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Jackson Miracle Stories
Jackson Miracle Stories
Your dollars at work.
Rodrick Harden
An arteriovenous malformation rupture left a Miami man unable to function
Rodrick Harden, 55, spent many years serving Miami-Dade County as a roll-off truck driver, keeping our community beautiful.
On January 4, 2021, Harden arrived to the landfill for his last dump of the day, when he fell on debris, hitting his head. Harden felt some discomfort after the fall, but decided to head home for the day and get some rest.
Once home, Harden heard an alarming pop noise in his head. His vision was shrinking, his hearing was fading, and his lower body was growing numb. When he tried to speak, his tongue felt heavy.
Emergency medical services rushed Harden to Jackson North Medical Center where his medical team discovered Harden was suffering from a rare medical condition – a brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM), or an abnormal tangle of blood vessels in the brain.
Harden’s AVM ruptured, causing a hemorrhage, or a brain bleed. The emergency team worked quickly to stabilize him and get his brain bleed under control, and transferred him to Jackson Memorial Hospital for life-saving surgery.
Jacques Morcos, MD, FRCS, FAANS, former division chief of cranial neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial, and a former UHealth – University of Miami Health System cerebrovascular and skull base neurosurgeon, and his team performed a successful eight-hour craniotomy procedure to remove Harden’s AVM.
In addition, Harden received inpatient and outpatient therapy to regain his balance, mobility and speech at Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.
He’s forever grateful to the teams at Jackson for never giving up on him.
“They are the unsung heroes,” Harden said. “They don’t just tend to patients, they teach us a new way of living, and that you still have some meaning on this earth. I thank my wife, family, doctors, and therapists for their commitment to me.”
Dr. Yasin
Jackson’s former chief of obstetrics and director of maternity services receives life-saving double-lung transplant from The Lung Center and the Miami Transplant Institute
For Dr. Salih Yasin, 70, bringing new life into the world as the former chief of obstetrics and director of maternity services at Jackson Health System was not just a job, it was his passion. For 36 years, Dr. Yasin built an extensive career and community in maternity, obstetrics, and fetal services at Jackson, helping new parents start their families.
Two years after retiring from his role in 2020, he returned to the hospital – not as a doctor, but as a patient in need of life-saving treatment.
By late summer of 2022, he started noticing some shortness of breath, and later developed a cold and fever that wouldn’t go away.
Dr. Yasin sought treatment at an emergency room, and doctors discovered his oxygen saturation was extremely low. He was diagnosed with scleroderma-associated interstitial lung disease, a chronic condition in which scar tissue and inflammation build up in the walls of the lungs’ air sacs, stemming from the scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder.
His health rapidly deteriorated within months of his diagnosis, and he was placed on the waiting list for a double-lung transplant.
On March 20, 2023, he underwent a successful double-lung transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital, led by Mauricio Pipkin, MD, surgical director of the ECMO program at the Miami Transplant Institute.
Today, he follows a strict, post-transplant regimen to help him stay healthy, and he credits the donor family and the team at Jackson for giving him a second chance at life.
“I received a letter from the donor family; they wanted me to know their son was somebody who always wanted to do good things,” Dr. Yasin said. “Is ‘thank you’ good enough? I don’t know. But my promise to the donor family is the values of their son will continue to live on through me, thanks to the care I received at Jackson and at MTI.”
Isabella Veras
Isabella Veras, 13, was a normal, healthy child who enjoyed music, art, and learning, until one day in 2018 when she began complaining of eye pain. Less than 24 hours later, she lost vision in her right eye. The then seven-year-old was rushed to the emergency room at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute – University of Miami Health System.
During the visit, Isabella was unable to distinguish anything other than hand movement, and reported having a fever and light sensitivity for a week. Byron Lam, MD, an ophthalmologist at Bascom Palmer, found she had optic neuritis, or optic nerve swelling, in the right eye, along with decreased vision, which he treated with steroids.
A month later, Isabella experienced loss of appetite, muscle pain, and decreased vision in her right eye again. She was admitted to Holtz Children’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial Medical Center, where she was put on monoclonal antibodies. During this visit, Roberto Lopez, MD, a pediatric neurologist at Holtz Children’s, performed a lumbar puncture to retrieve spinal fluid for testing. The results showed Isabella had neuromyelitis optica, a rare autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack the spinal cord and optic nerves.
Bascom Palmer ophthalmologists and Holtz Children’s neurologists and rheumatologists came together to create a plan, including routine MRIs and immunosuppressant treatment with chemotherapy medication from 2019 to 2022.
“We don’t know what will happen in her future, so it was difficult to decide whether or not to start her on treatment,” Dr. Lam said “That’s where having a multidisciplinary team is so beneficial.”
Over the course of her treatment, Dr. Lopez also treated Isabella’s spinal cord lesions to reduce the abnormal sensations she was experiencing, such as vision loss. With her care team’s support, she remained asymptomatic for five years.
Now, Isabella is thriving in middle school, learning, painting, listening to Taylor Swift, and making big plans for her future.
Juan Ruiz Cruz
Young Man Recovers after Severe Motorcycle Accident with Help from Therapy at Lynn Rehabilitation Center
When Juan Ruiz Cruz, 35, tries to remember what happened on January 30, 2022, the only thing he can recall is waking up in the hospital.
On that Sunday afternoon, Ruiz got into a severe motorcycle accident.
EMS rushed him to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial with a cracked skull, broken collarbone, broken ribs, broken knee, collapsed lung, and a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
“When I finally woke up in the hospital, I wasn’t even aware of the extent of my injuries,” Ruiz said.
He needed several emergency surgeries to fix his fractures. Ruiz remained heavily sedated at Ryder Trauma for several weeks while recovering before he was transferred to Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.
Upon arrival, the rehabilitation team found that Ruiz’s right side was immobile due to a brachial plexus injury. The brachial plexus is a network of nerves in the shoulder that carries movement and sensory signals from the spinal cord to the arms and hands.
He required intense rehabilitation therapy to regain function in his right shoulder, elbow, and wrist.
At the time, Ruiz could not cut his own food, get dressed, or shower without assistance. However, with occupational therapy, he slowly improved.
By October, with the help of a wrist brace, therapy, and at-home exercises, Ruiz regained significant motion in his right side.
A month later, Ruiz reached a major milestone – he regained all mobility on his right side, and was fully discharged from Lynn Rehabilitation Center.
After discharge, Ruiz found a newfound love for painting. Today, he participates in a peer support group through Lynn Rehabilitation Center’s Recreational Therapy Program.
“Everyone always thinks that painters are artists,” he said. “But after going through this, I realized the real artists are those who save lives every day.”
Gil Macahdo
Man Suffering from Severe Lung Scarring for Three Years Receives Life-Saving Double-Lung Transplant at the Miami Transplant Institute
Spending time with family, boating, working, and exercise were Gilbert Machado’s favorite pastimes – especially cycling around Miami with his wife of 38 years.
However, three years ago, the 63-year-old began to experience cough attacks that were impossible to control.
After seeking care for his cough, Machado was diagnosed with reflux. However, the attacks only got worse with time. One day, while Machado was at UHealth – University of Miami Health System for a sleep study, a doctor noticed his severe cough and looked at his lung scans.
What the doctor found in the scans was severe idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis – a disease that causes scarring of the lungs.
After the diagnosis, Machado sought medical treatment at the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), an affiliation between Jackson Health System and UHealth. While being treated, he continued to live his normal life.
After years of treatment and continued lung scarring, Machado reached a point where he could no longer get up on his bike, go into the office for work, or stand for longer than a few minutes.
After the MTI team cleared him for transplantation, Machado was placed on the national organ list. Within 16 days, he received the call that they had found a match.
On October 9, 2022, he underwent a successful double-lung transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Machado spent two weeks recovering at Jackson Memorial and Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial before returning home to his wife, children, and grandchildren.
More than a year later, he feels better than ever – he exercises daily, attends Marlins baseball games, goes to dinner, works part-time, drives, goes boating with his family, and travels.
“I wouldn’t know what to say to the donor family that expresses what they’ve offered me,” Machado said. “Because of them, I was able to spend more time with my family.”
“And the team at MTI and at Jackson – they are the absolute best,” he continued. “I try to tell them each and every chance I get that they make a huge difference.”
Chauncy Koolman
Beach Tennis Player Inspires New Adaptive Sports Programs at Lynn Rehabilitation Center Following Severe Spinal Cord Injury
By: Krysten Brenlla
Chauncey Koolman, 25, has been playing beach tennis for as long as he can remember. As a young athlete, he aspired to pursue a career in professional sports.
However, on October 2, 2023, Koolman’s life took a drastic turn when he was involved in a near-fatal car accident after crashing against the side railing on the expressway. Emergency medical services rushed him to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South with a cervical spinal cord injury.
The spinal cord injury resulted in a partial loss of sensation from the neck down. Ultimately, Koolman was paralyzed in his lower extremities.
After an emergency surgery at Jackson South, Koolman spent one week in the neurosurgical intensive care unit. Once he was discharged from Jackson South, he was transferred to Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.
When Koolman first arrived at Lynn Rehabilitation Center, he could not raise his arms over his head or move his hands. He had no mobility in his triceps muscles, was experiencing weakness in his bicep muscles, and was unable to move his fingers.
After a month of rehabilitation therapy, Koolman slowly improved. With physical therapy, he was able to transfer to a wheelchair by himself, gained bicep and triceps muscle mobility, and improved his upper body strength.
Additionally, with occupational therapy, he learned how to dress, bathe, and manage his bladder and bowel movements without additional help.
In addition to gaining mobility in his upper extremities and hands, Koolman learned to roll over in bed, lift up and dip by himself in his wheelchair, and support himself for a long time without any support.
With the help of recreational therapy, Koolman participates in several adaptive sports. Because of his love for beach tennis, he inspired the recreational therapy team at Lynn Rehabilitation Center to open a new pickle ball adaptive sports program for patients.
“There’s nothing I could say to the teams here other than thank you,” Koolman said. “It’s a hard situation, so to get through it and be pushed the way they push you – I’m blessed to have them.”