JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 For Pieter Kort, the halls of UF Health Jacksonville once represented a place of profound grief and loss. <\/p>\n
Nearly three years after a devastating car accident in Clay County claimed the lives of his two young daughters, the Canadian father returned to the hospital, this time to say thank you. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Kort and his family, from Ontario, Canada, frequently vacationed in Florida. In 2022, a cherished family tradition ended in tragedy when a cement truck rear-ended their van<\/a> at the intersection of U.S. 301 and County Road 218. <\/p>\n The accident sent the family to UF Health Jacksonville, where Kort mourned the loss of his daughters, Madeline and Joni, while simultaneously recovering from his own injuries. <\/p>\n Kamela Scott, Director of Surgical Psychology Services at UF Health, recalled the moment Kort was leaving hospital. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen he left, he said, \u2018I\u2019ll never come back to Jacksonville,\u2019\u201d Scott recalled. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018I understand that because of the pain associated with it.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s obviously very difficult for me to come back,\u201d Kort said Monday. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was present the entire time when his children were being treated in his life,\u201d Dan Iracki, a shareholder with Coker Law, said. \u201cSo it was a very traumatic, terrible crash. The worst thing you could ever imagine as a human being,\u201d <\/p>\n This week, Kort walked back into the facility with a new purpose: gratitude. He was eager to personally thank the dedicated staff in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) who had provided care and compassion during his family\u2019s darkest hours. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Kort, alongside Coker Law, presented a $20,000 donation to the hospital\u2019s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. <\/p>\n The gesture, Kort explained, was a testament to the staff\u2019s humanity and support. <\/p>\n \u201cTheir compassion made all the difference for my family and the way that they greeted my family, that\u2019s a huge difference,\u201d Kort said. <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 For Pieter Kort, the halls of UF Health Jacksonville once represented a place of profound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[46540,982,9984,9481,46545,46542,28,969,116,118,117,6489,46544,634,46543,115,10659,46538,46539,32258,46541],"class_list":{"0":"post-84589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-_canada","9":"tag-action_news","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-clay_county","12":"tag-coker_law","13":"tag-county_road_218","14":"tag-florida","15":"tag-jack","16":"tag-jacksonville","17":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","18":"tag-jacksonville-news","19":"tag-jessica_salinas","20":"tag-joni","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-madeleine","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-ontario","25":"tag-peter_court","26":"tag-peter_kor","27":"tag-uf_health","28":"tag-us_301"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84589","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=84589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}