More Rest in Hospital Prescribed for Victim

Although there was talk of him coming home today, 5-year-old Benjamin Kadish, the youngest and most seriously wounded victim of this month’s Jewish community center shooting, will spend at least another two weeks in the hospital, his doctors said Wednesday.

Ben’s biggest problem is that he is afraid to put any weight on his wounded left leg because it still hurts a lot, said Dr. Luis Montes, chief rehabilitation physician at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles. Over the next few weeks, specialists will teach the talkative, beefy youngster, whose spirits are getting better each day, how to use a wheelchair and walk with crutches.

“The first step is to get him out of bed and moving around,” Montes said. “Then we’ll get him walking again. Within three to four months, we expect he’d be back 100%.”

Ben was shot along with four others Aug. 10 in an attack at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, shootings allegedly committed by avowed racist and anti-Semite Buford O. Furrow Jr. Furrow turned himself in and authorities have said he confessed to the center shootings along with the slaying later that same day of mail carrier Joseph Ileto.

Federal authorities have indicted Furrow, 37, on two capital charges--murder and unlawful gun possession--and state officials have filed attempted murder charges.

The four others shot at the center--a 68-year-old receptionist, a 16-year-old counselor and two 6-year-old boys--have since been released from area hospitals and gone home. But Ben, who lives in West Hills with his parents, 9-year-old brother, Seth, and Kahula, a new golden retriever, has been bedridden at Childrens Hospital since the shooting.

“He’s doing better and better each day,” said Ron Herstik, rabbi of Temple Solael in West Hills, where the Kadish family worships.

In addition to a bullet-shattered left femur, Ben was shot in the stomach and will need to rely on a colostomy bag for another two months until his stomach fully heals, doctors said. Although the wounds were nearly fatal, Ben is not expected to have any permanent physical damage, his doctors said.

But it’s unclear how the shooting has emotionally affected the boy, who is known on his cul-de-sac for his ceaseless questions and waving hi to every neighbor he sees. Some days, when Ben meets with a hospital psychiatrist in his room, he talks about the shooting, Montes said. Other days he won’t.

“It’s so difficult to tell how the shooting is going to affect his behavior,” Montes said. “At this point, we just want to get him up and running around like any other 5-year-old.”