Boy’s Injuries, Ordeal Stun Officials : Reaction: Strangers, officials send emotional support, toys. Situation also angers well-wishers.

ORANGE —  Sympathetic callers, eager to help a hospitalized boy allegedly tortured by a relative, on Friday swamped police and hospital operators. Meanwhile, Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez established a special fund to raise money for the child.

“We have been inundated,” said Orange Police Lt. Timm Browne. “I have a long list of names I will be calling back on Monday and telling how they can help.”

The 10-year-old boy remained in stable condition at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where surgeons implanted a colostomy bag on his abdomen last week.

The outpouring of help and sympathy came a day after the boy’s aunt, Cynthia Medina, 31, surrendered to police on suspicion of torturing her nephew. The allegations against Medina include searing the boy’s tongue with a hot knife and penetrating him anally with a souvenir baseball bat. The boy also had suffered welts and bruises, Brown said.

“It’s brutality at its worst,” Vasquez said. “People are outraged.”

The supervisor said he has been contacted by a lot of people who “want to reach out and do something for him.”

“Strangers have been coming by on their lunch hour and dropping off things like stuffed animals and toys for the boy,” said Orman Day, a Children’s Hospital of Orange County spokesman. “Even a group of Marines brought by a big bag of goodies.”

The hospital has set aside a portion of its front lobby as a drop-off for the public. Among the gifts collected Friday were a big stuffed lion with a Rams cap, a tiger with a Mighty Ducks cap, balloons and Mighty Morphin Power Ranger books.

“People come here with two emotions: anger and sympathy,” Day said. “They’re really upset. People are really touched by this.”

On Thursday, Orange Police Chief John R. Robertson, paid a visit to the young boy at the hospital and gave him a baseball cap with the city of Orange Police Department logo, POGs, a backpack, T-shirt, ruler, pencils and a wind-up police car.

“We assured the boy that when he can be picked up, we will do so in a police car and give him a ride to our police station where he will be given a guided tour of the Police Department,” Browne said. “Even (Deputy Dist. Atty.) Chuck Middleton has been over there and gave him a stuffed toy.”

Offers of help also came from Orange police officers, Orange County sheriff’s academy staff members, and many others, including the boy’s schoolmates at Sycamore Elementary School in Orange.

Jim McMillen, Sycamore’s principal, where the boy and Medina’s 9-year-old son are enrolled, said the school’s children and teachers were sending balloons and stuffed bears to try and cheer them up. Medina’s son was placed by county authorities in Orangewood Children’s Home Sept. 8 after officials learned of the the older boy’s injuries.

Authorities said they did not know how long the 10-year-old would remain in the hospital.

“The nurses at the hospital gave him baseball cards yesterday,” Brown said. “It’s just incredible. The nursing staff was virtually in tears.”

At the hospital, a Spanish-language television reporter left in tears after wrapping up a segment on the boy’s condition and the outpouring of sympathy, Day said.

“The boy has gotten so many gifts he has given some of them to other young children in the same unit to cheer them up,” Day said.

Those interested in making a donation to the fund set up by Vasquez can mail it to OC Cares Trust Fund, Orange National Bank, P.O. Box 6040, Orange, 92667. The contact at the bank is Helen Walker at (714) 771-4000.

Times staff writers Matt Lait and Leslie Berkman contributed to this report.