{"id":274492,"date":"2026-05-17T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274492\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:55:09","slug":"miami-police-officer-honored-for-helping-3-year-old-who-suffered-traumatic-toe-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274492\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami police officer honored for helping 3-year-old who suffered traumatic toe injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0May 17, 2026 at 5:18 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 Play time at a Miami park turned into a nightmare for a young family. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami Police Officer Rafael Perez-Valdivia raced to the rescue to help a 3-year-old who severed his toe in an e-bike accident after it got stuck in the rotor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It happened at Riverside Park in Miami\u2019s Little Havana neighborhood on March 11. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI grabbed my bandage, I had my own med kit, and started wrapping his foot,\u201d said Perez-Valdivia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Thanks to the quick actions of the officer, doctors were able to partially re-attach the boy\u2019s toe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">After what could have been a life changing accident, the boy, who\u2019s been slowly learning how to walk again, was able to thank the officer who saved him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cTo see them come today it made my heart full,\u201d said Perez-Valdivia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The boy\u2019s family was there for the reunion, calling Perez-Valdivia a hero.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Miami Police Department recognized Perez-Valdivia for his quick response, naming him Officer of the Month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI put my head down and try to do the right thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think of myself as a hero, I just think of myself as someone who tries to do the right thing every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Bridgette Matter\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/2dda0f91-39c8-479e-9e.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Bridgette Matter<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Bridgette Matter joined the Local 10 News team as a reporter in July 2021. Before moving to South Florida, she began her career in South Bend, Indiana and spent six years in Jacksonville as a reporter and weekend anchor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0May 17, 2026 at 5:18 PM MIAMI \u2014 Play time at a Miami park turned into a nightmare&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-274492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}