SANTA ANA : David, 10, to Be Home at Christmas

For the past five years, Christmas has been less than merry for the Arechiga family of Santa Ana.

Since David, the youngest of Rafael and Anita Arechiga’s eight children, was hit by a car while crossing a street in March, 1987, the holiday season has brought more pain than cheer to the family.

But thanks to countless good Samaritans, the Arechigas’ ordeal is easing up. This Christmas, David, who is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of that accident, will be home. By next February, when modifications on the family home are completed, the 10-year-old will be home for good.

“We’re overwhelmed,” Lupe Arechiga, David’s oldest sister, said Friday. “Knowing that a lot of people care . . . it’s a very nice feeling.”

Lupe Arechiga works as secretary at Carr Intermediate School in Santa Ana. Friday, the school played Santa for the Arechiga family. With David as special guest at the school’s Christmas party, Vincent Tafolla, the school principal, turned over to the family $800 that the staff had raised over a two-week period.

The money will be used to buy whatever David needs when he comes home. Very likely, Lupe Arechiga said, the money will be spent on a breath-controlled television set that David can use to play his favorite video games.

“He likes that TV set with the attached VCR,” Lupe said.

David smiled broadly as his mother wheeled him into a reception area where the school staff had gathered. Staff members sang Christmas carols for him, and several couldn’t hold back tears.

“It makes you grateful for all your blessings,” said Pam Padilla, a secretary. “Looking at him, it seems your problems are really minimal.”

Assistant Principal Phillip Johnson and office manager Mary Packard started the fund-raiser after a local television station broadcast David’s story and the family’s hope to bring him home from Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey, where he has been living for the past five years.

“We wanted to adopt him for Christmas and give him something he could really use,” Johnson said. He added that the school will “probably do something for him on a regular basis.”

David’s oldest brother, Ralph, said the Optimist Club of Downey is helping convert the family garage into a room for David. However, various code requirements by the city of Santa Ana have delayed the construction.

“We’ve been working on the permits for a year now,” Ralph Arechiga said. “It’s been taking so long, but I guess that’s how the system works.”

David’s father, Rafael, a construction worker who has been unemployed for the past five years, said meeting code standards is tough, but David’s room will have all the facilities necessary. He said the only thing missing will be a bathroom, which could not fit into the limited space. Once home, however, David will be under 24-hour nursing care, with his mother among the three people who will care for him.

Medi-Cal is paying for his medical expenses, which are expected to cost about $500 a day, Rafael Arechiga said.

David has remained a “happy child” despite being confined to a wheelchair, Ralph Arechiga said. When David arrived at the school, he said softly to his sister, Lupe, “I want to play.”

David was in a coma for two weeks after the 1987 accident. He could not speak for almost a year, but now converses well, Lupe Arechiga said.

David said he likes to play Nintendo. The Super Mario Brothers game is his favorite.

“He has lost much, but not his heart,” his brother said.