‘Miracle Child’ Wounded in Head by Playmate’s Gun to Regain Most Functions

Sitting on her mother’s lap, wearing a pink dress and sucking on a red lollipop, Mary Ann Burns looked like most 2-year-olds. Only her half-shaven head with exposed deep gashes reminded her mother of Thanksgiving Day, when Mary Ann was accidentally shot in the head by a 5-year-old playmate.

“I prayed to God that Mary Ann would recover,” Bertha Burns of Chula Vista said Monday at Children’s Hospital, when Mary Ann was released to go home. “He finally listened to me.”

Dr. Joseph Scheller, who has been Mary Ann’s neurologist since she was released from intensive care one week after the accident, said he expects Mary Ann to make “an excellent recovery.”

“She will recover most of her functions,” Scheller said. “But she will probably end up having some disability in her right hand and possibly some speech problems.”

Nineteen days ago, Mary Ann was playing in the back yard of her playmate’s house in the 400 block of Anita Street. The 5-year-old ran into her family home about 4 p.m. and came back to her back yard swing set with a loaded pistol to show Mary Ann.

The pistol discharged, wounding Mary Ann in the left back part of her head. She underwent surgery at Children’s Hospital to remove four bullet fragments and lost a small amount of brain tissue, Scheller said.

He said that, because the left side of the brain determines the motor sensory and speech skills, Mary Ann will need intensive physical therapy to regain full use. He estimated that she will recover 90%.

“If you see her a year from now,” he said, “you would not be able to tell she was ever in an accident.”

Although Mary Ann is recovering rapidly, Scheller said she could easily have died without immediate care. While she was in the hospital, some of Mary Ann’s nurses called her the “Miracle Child.”

Meanwhile, Mary Ann seemed content and alert in her father’s arms.

“I want another lollipop,” she said to her dad, Jim Burns, who is separated from his wife and lives in Riverside.

“This whole thing has brought us all closer together,” Jim Burns said. “We might even get back together.”

Burns and his wife will take Mary Ann to a speech and occupational therapist three times a week; her right arm has lost most of its feeling and she is having a difficult time stringing sentences together.

The parents of the girl who accidentally shot Mary Ann, Thomas and Erma Molina, pleaded not guilty to a child-endangerment charge and were released by the judge after promising to appear for a Jan. 30 preliminary hearing. Jim Burns said he is disappointed that the parents never apologized for the accident.

He said he is looking into the possibility of a lawsuit against the Molinas.

“They haven’t even called to see if there was anything they can do,” Jim Burns said. “It bums me out. It makes it easier to do it (file a suit) now . . . but I’m really more worried about Mary Ann.”