DAYTON — Miami Valley Hospital honored five people who went through traumatic situations that nearly cost them their lives.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11, Alviana Rodriguez, Madison Sieferid, and Nathan Myers all survived serious car crashes.
Solomon Kessio also suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck by a car.
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Last year he was training to be a Dayton police officer when he was hit on SR-4.
On this night he was silent, but grateful, for the people who saved his life.
>> RELATED: Dayton Police recruit injured in crash released from hospital
Kevin Pleiman was one of the trauma survivors in attendance.
“In the middle of December last year I was burned, 70 percent of my body in a paint thinner explosion,” Pleiman said.
He was trying to start a brush fire when a can of paint thinner exploded.
He was alone in the woods.
“I dropped and rolled for a while, I could not get the fire out by doing that so I kind of gave up on that. I got my two coats off, which they were on fire,” he said.
Pleiman jumped into an old creek bed and dug until he got into water which he used to put himself out.
About a half mile away his nephew was deer hunting and heard his uncle’s cries for help. He called 911.
Careflight came and took him to the Miami Valley Hospital Trauma Unit.
He spent 98 days at the hospital undergoing multiple surgeries and therapy.
“The bad days are past us at this point, it’s only good days coming,” Pleiman said.
A doctor at the hospital said that the day Pleiman was discharged, staff came on their day off to say goodbye.
He left a positive impact on the staff that cared for him and reuniting with him was special.
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