ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — As a level one trauma center, Swedish Medical Center cares for some of the most critical injuries. Each year, the hospital hosts a Trauma Survivors Day. It gives survivors and their care teams a chance to reunite and reflect on progress.

One of the survivors at Wednesday’s event was 20-year-old Gabriel Marceca, who was critically injured in a motorcycle crash in October.

“October 12th of last year I was coming home from hanging out with a friend and I was riding my motorcycle home and I got to an intersection,” Marceca said. “I smacked the rear end of their vehicle and flew 15 feet.”

The next thing Marceca said he remembers is waking up the next day in the intensive care unit of Swedish Medical Center. As a result of the crash, he experienced multiple broken bones, a punctured lung, a severed colon and liver and bleeding in the brain. He spent the next two and a half months in the hospital.

“I was given a 5% chance of living,” Marceca said.

Marceca credits his survival with the first responders and care team at Swedish Medical Center.

“To go through what I did go through, and then to be able to stand and walk and just somewhat have a normal life because of the team that I had, brings a lot of happiness to me,” he said.

Reconnecting with care teams ‘important,’ doctor says

Dr. Kaysie Banton, the trauma medical director at Swedish Medical Center, said Trauma Survivors Day is equally rewarding to the care teams and medical staff.

“I think I have the best job on the planet. I get to take people who are totally broken and put them back together, but I also see people experience one of the worst days of their lives, and by the time they leave the hospital, they make an enormous amount of progress. But I don’t see their lives put back together, and I think it’s incredibly important for all of us to see that,” Banton said.

In total, a hundred people registered for Wednesday’s event, including 25 survivors who were all treated within the last year.

“This is incredibly important. Every day, you go home and you hug your family knowing that not everybody does, so today is critical — it’s critical to everybody,” Banton said.