Parents Keep Bedside Vigil for Boy Injured at Disneyland

David and Victoria Zucker have no way to tell whether their comatose son can hear them. Just in case, Brandon’s parents have been at his bedside at UCI Medical Center in Orange almost constantly since Friday night, when the 4-year-old was critically injured on the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin ride at Disneyland.

They hold his hand. They kiss him. And constantly, they tell him how much they love him, said Brandon’s doctor, Marianne Cinat.

But because he is hooked up to machines that help him breathe and monitor his organ functions, his parents cannot take his 45-pound body, which is covered with bruises from head to toe, into their arms.

On Monday morning, a few hours before Brandon underwent a second surgery, David Zucker talked to hospital officials about Brandon’s habit of speeding around his Canyon Country neighborhood on his in-line scooter, and of how much he loves to swim. The family’s stunned and sympathetic neighbors describe Brandon as a lively little guy who huddles in secret hiding places with his older brother and a friend, and loves to build with Lego blocks.

Doctors say it will be months before the little boy can pursue those activities again--if ever.

In the accident that left him pinned in a sitting position beneath the amusement car ride, according to Anaheim paramedics’ reports, bent at the waist with the vehicle on his back, Brandon suffered injury to his spleen, liver, diaphragm and pelvis, and his left lung collapsed.

Doctors say he shows no signs of head injury, but Cinat said she does not yet know whether Brandon was deprived of oxygen long enough to have suffered brain damage or injury to other organs.

Paramedics said he was not breathing when they arrived Friday. They resuscitated him, and he arrived at the emergency room with a weak pulse, in a shock-induced coma, Cinat said.

Brandon is still in a coma, but now it’s induced by drugs, a cocktail of muscle relaxants, pain-killers and amnesia-inducing sedatives that doctors say will keep him quiet and give his body a chance to recover from the massive injuries.

Cinat said she tells his parents to keep talking to him.

“We say, even though he’s on those medications, assume he can hear you,” she said.

In a written statement released Monday, Victoria and David Zucker said they are optimistic that their son will make it.

“We believe our strong faith in God and the UCI doctors will help Brandon recover from his injuries,” they wrote. “We appreciate the prayers and support we have been given during this difficult time.”

On Monday, Cinat asked hospital officials to show her a photograph of Brandon that had been released to the news media, noting that she had only seen her patient covered with bruises and swollen from injuries and surgery.

The trauma surgeon smiled when she saw the image of the little boy with the impish grin.

In the Zuckers’ condominium complex in Canyon Country, neighbors said they were praying for Brandon’s recovery. They described him as a delightful and social boy from a caring family. He loves to play with other children.

Augusto Rodriguez, whose daughter Denisse is a playmate of Brandon’s, described the Zucker family as “very nice.”

Denisse talked of how much fun it is to play with Brandon and his older brother, Nicholas, on their scooters. She said the three children like to retire to a “secret laboratory,” an alcove under a neighbor’s balcony and behind a bush.

“We come up here and play. When we stop playing, we go to his house and play with Legos,” Denisse said.

Her father said he was saddened and horrified to hear of Brandon’s accident. “It’s such a shock to hear that something like that would happen to someone, to a little guy that you know from your neighborhood,” he said.

Neighbor James Barger knows the Zuckers only in passing. He learned his young neighbor was the injured child on the news on Sunday night during a brief conversation with Victoria Zucker, when she returned home briefly.

“She was pretty upset,” Barger said. “She was just telling me about it. He went under the ride, or fell from it.”

Cindy Arnold, also a neighbor of the Zuckers, said the family moved in about two years ago, and that Brandon and his brother love to wave to passersby from their balcony.

“He’s a cute little kid--rambunctious but nice,” she said.

Brandon’s doctor said Monday that the boy’s rambunctious spirit may help save his life.

“From Friday until now . . . he’s shown he’s a fighter,” said Cinat. “I’m optimistic that he’s going to survive.”

*

Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino contributed to this story.