Friends Pitch In to Help Injured Girl : Aid: Schoolmates arrange fund-raisers to help family of Cindy Gonzales defray medical bills. She was injured when she was hit by a car.

Friends have to help one another, 13-year-old Faith Pastrana said. And if Cindy Gonzales is your friend there is nothing she won’t do for you.

Taking that sentiment to heart, Pastrana’s mother, Angelina, did something Sunday for Cindy, 14, who was hit by an alleged drunk driver and critically injured two weeks ago: She organized a car wash on the Eastside to help the Gonzales family pay their daughter’s massive hospital bills.

At $3 per car, the effort raised about $500, a tiny fraction of Gonzales’ medical bills. But it was the show of compassion that moved Cindy’s mother, Beatrice Gonzales.

“I don’t even know these people,” said Gonzales, crying as she saw the cars lining up in the parking lot of the East West Bank on North Broadway in Lincoln Heights, while friends and schoolmates of her daughter cleaned and rinsed them. “I can’t believe this, how people are coming together to help us. I didn’t even know Angelina Pastrana.”

After she and her daughter visited Cindy in the hospital a few days after the accident, Pastrana decided to help the Gonzales family.

“She’s going to need so many special things. Hopefully this will help them pay for some of (them),” Pastrana said.

Beatrice Gonzales supports the family on a $27,000-a-year job as a state medical eligibility worker. Her husband, injured a decade ago when a truck slammed into his car, cannot work.

“I ran out of money for Christmas. I don’t even have a tree,” Gonzales said. “Our Christmas is just making sure our daughter is all right.”

Cindy, a student at Lincoln High, is paralyzed on her right side from the accident, in which she suffered critical head injuries and a broken leg and hip. She was in a coma until Friday.

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She was crossing the intersection of Sichel Street and North Broadway around 9 p.m. Dec. 5 when a car struck her--throwing her 30 feet--and kept going, witnesses said.

The driver, identified by police as John Joe Gomez, 30, of Lincoln Park, returned to the scene on foot a few minutes later and mingled with the crowd that had gathered around the girl, police said.

Gomez approached an officer and said, ‘I think I hit something, but I’m not sure if I’m responsible,’ ” police said.

Gomez was arrested, and was found to have a blood alcohol level of .14, above the legal limit of .08, according to police, who said the incident was his fourth drunk-driving arrest.

Cindy’s parents learned of the accident after witnesses went to the home of a friend who Cindy had been visiting. When her parents arrived at the scene 15 minutes later, they saw only the girl’s shoes and jacket in the street. Cindy was already in an ambulance. Paramedics would not let the parents look at her.

The unconscious girl was rushed to County-USC Medical Center, where doctors told the Gonzales family that their daughter was not likely to survive the night.

“I didn’t think she would make it,” Beatrice Gonzales said. “But sometimes I looked at her, and I thought she was smiling, telling me not to worry.”

Cindy Gonzales hung on. After 12 days at Kaiser Hospital on Sunset Boulevard, she awoke from her coma. She still occasionally lapses into it, but was transferred to Childrens Hospital on Saturday to begin rehabilitation, her mother said.

Gomez is in Los Angeles County jail, charged with felony drunk driving and awaiting a preliminary hearing. The Gonzales family attended his initial court appearance last week, accompanied by representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

On Sunday, cold and wet from washing cars with her friends, Cindy Gonzales’ twin, Sandra, said she knew all along that her sister would pull through.

“My sister, she’s strong. She’s a real fighter. Nothing ever brings her down,” Sandra said. “She’s not afraid of anything.”

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Cindy’s friends, who affectionately described her as a phone-hogging shopaholic, and in many other ways, as a typical teen-age girl, said they are planning other fund-raisers, including a menudo breakfast Wednesday.

“She is strong-minded, and a little stubborn, but she really has a heart,” said Brenda Aleman, 15. “She really means a lot to all of us.”