Miami Grand Prix doctors bring racing passion, trauma expertise to trackside care

MIAMI – If there’s a superior clang during a contention astatine the Miami Grand Prix, drivers request the champion attraction arsenic rapidly arsenic possible.

Thankfully, the squad of doctors astatine Jackson Memorial Hospital who are moving the contention are uniquely qualified.

Dr. Antonio Marttos Jr. told Local 10’s Clay Ferraro connected Friday that helium grew up watching his hero, Ayrton Senna, contention for championships.

Marttos was primitively successful schoolhouse to beryllium a integrative surgeon.

But aft watching Senna suffer his beingness successful a clang successful 1994, Marttos decided to alteration people and go a trauma surgeon.

“When helium died, I realized I was expected to go a integrative surgeon,” said Marttos. “His clang truly changed my career.”

Marttos says that his archetypal trackside duty was a motortruck contention successful Brazil wherever a fiery clang forced a operator to leap and rotation retired of his burning vehicle.

He said helium ended up face-to-face with the shaken operator — and with his ain aboriginal successful trauma medicine.

He’s present utilized his acquisition to plan a afloat functional grooming bay that mirrors the 1 utilized astatine the contention track. It’s modeled aft the meticulous choreography of a pit unit — lone with overmuch higher stakes.

Now, helium leads the squad of doctors from JMH who enactment the Miami Grand Prix.

Dr. Gabriel Ruiz is portion of that team. And he’s besides a contention car operator himself.

“I’m a surgeon, truthful I similar to enactment with my hands,” helium said. “It besides serves arsenic a benignant of relaxing happening for maine to beryllium moving this job. This occupation is precise stressful, truthful that’s however we decompress successful the garage. And I’ve been moving connected it for a year, gathering it small by little, portion by piece, learning from radical that know, and getting the car to what it is now.”

Ruiz races astatine Homestead and Sebring. He besides built his ain contention car from scratch.

That dual position gives him unsocial insight.

“Yeah, it gives you the benignant of position of what a operator goes done erstwhile they’re going astir that, you know, 250 mph connected the track,” Ruiz said.

Following a crash, seconds matter. And it’s hard to ideate anyone amended oregon faster than the squad from JMH.

Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.