Boy Wounded on Freeway Leaves Hospital

After spending 132 days in three hospitals, 13-year-old Richard Bautista, who survived a severe gunshot wound in a random freeway attack, went home Friday morning.

“We are really happy to be taking him home,” said Richard’s father, Hector Bautista, outside the lobby of Childrens Hospital as the medical staff placed Richard in an ambulance. “It’s been a long time.”

He had been allowed to go home for a few hours on Christmas Day. But every other day during the last four months--including Thanksgiving, New Year’s and even his Jan. 26 birthday--the boy who dreams of becoming a world-class soccer player spent morning, noon and night in a hospital bed, frustrated by his inability to move his arms and legs and questioning why this had to happen to him.

Richard was on his way home from a Dodger baseball game Sept. 22 with his cousin and her friend on the southbound Harbor Freeway when a van pulled up behind them and a gunman suddenly opened fire.

One of the bullets pierced the top of Richard’s head.

At the hospital emergency room, Hector and Ramona Bautista were told to prepare for the possibility that their son--an altar boy and model student--would die or fall into a coma.

Today, after weeks of painful recovery, Richard is alert and talking, even studying pre-algebra with a tutor.

But the bullet damaged the portion of the brain that controls motor skills, and he cannot move his arms or legs. And so far, the gunman remains at large.

Because of the nature of the injury, Richard has feeling in his limbs, including pain, but he has very limited control over them.

His parents often have to hold down Richard’s arms because they tend to contort into painful positions.

Doctors are cautiously optimistic about Richard’s recovery. However, “he’s never going to be exactly the same as he was,” Dr. Maureen McMorrow said in a phone interview last month.

But Richard and his family remain hopeful that he will someday be able to walk again, and perhaps even be able to play soccer.

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To prepare for Richard’s homecoming, the Bautistas have had to make their house accessible to a wheelchair by building ramps, changing the carpet and widening doorways.

No big party was planned, Hector Bautista said. Richard is simply looking forward to being at home, lying down and maybe watching a video, Hector Bautista said.

Doctors have trained the Bautistas in caring for the boy, who needs 24-hour attention, but they say they are nervous about the responsibility of having him in their care at home.

“We’ve been preparing for this day for quite some time now,” said a worried and weary Ramona Bautista, holding balloons that had decorated Richard’s hospital room.

Since the shooting, the Bautistas have taken turns with Richard in his hospital room so that one parent was at his bedside at all times, they said.

“It’s hard,” Hector Bautista said, “but so far we’ve done it.”

Ramona Bautista had to quit her job at Bank of America so she could spend more time at the hospital and Hector Bautista has been using up all the sick days he had accumulated on his job with the Postal Service.

Brother Hector Jr., 19, said the tragedy has brought the family closer and has changed the way he treats his little brother. “I used to pick on him a lot,” Hector Jr. admitted, “but now, to me, he’s like my baby. I take care of him.”

While Hector Jr. spoke to a reporter, his other brother, 14-year-old Anthony, comforted Richard in the ambulance that would take him home.

Richard’s struggle has touched the hearts of many across the country.

Tens of thousands of dollars have poured into a trust fund set up by his school and church, St. Gregory the Great in Whittier, said Cindi Burke, the office manager at St. Gregory.

“Up until recently we’ve been able to keep up with their hospital costs,” Burke said, “and we’ve helped them purchase a wheelchair and a new van that can accommodate his wheelchair.”

Donations have come in from all over the United States. Richard’s schoolmates at St. Gregory have staged many fund-raising events for him, from bake sales to a carnival that brought in about $6,000, Burke said.