South Florida Survivors: Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor Now Helping Others

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Every 13 seconds, someone in the U.S. sustains a traumatic brain injury.

For Jose Diaz, the moment that changed his life came on the evening of September 11th, 2012.

"I was 16 years old. I recently got my first car. Immature enough, I don't remember anything. My friend told me I was going 45 mph. The road was super slippery," he said. "I hydroplaned and hit a palm tree."

Jose crashed his new car in West Kendall. His best friend was in the car with him. Both teens were seriously hurt.

Jose was in a coma for 10 days.

"There were many doubts about whether I was going to survive. There was a nurse who told my mother, 'I don't know why you're so worried about this. He's either going to pass away or he's going to be a vegetable'," Jose told CBS 4's Lauren Pastrana.

Against all odds, Jose woke up with no recollection of exactly what happened and with limited ability to do some basic tasks, like walking, talking and feeding himself.

He started intense occupational, physical and speech therapy at Baptist Hospital's Brain Injury Program.

"People ask me what do you do for a living and I tell them I'm fortunate enough to witness miracles every day," said Clinical Neuropsychologist and program director Dr. Richard Hamilton.

He says Jose is one of their stand-out patients.

"I see him as such an inspiration because of his willingness to give back," he said.

Diaz isn't just working on his own skills, he also mentors other survivors just starting out on the recovery journey.

"Many of the times they give me a smile and you can tell their hope is back. They want to continue on and keep working on it," Jose said. "I just want to create change. It might be small in a city like Miami, but I'm trying."

He also speaks to students to raise awareness in hopes of preventing the mistakes he made behind the wheel.

Jose is currently an honors student at Miami-Dade College and hopes to study medicine one day.

March is Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Month. Click Here for more information.