7-year-old shot in West Pullman gets Halloween treat with early hospital release: 'I'm feeling good'
Zayden Garrett will get to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle after all.
The 7-year-old and his family had been resigned to Zayden spending Halloween in a hospital bed after he was wounded in a shooting at his West Pullman home last week.
But on Tuesday, Zayden was released from Comer Children's Hospital weeks ahead of the roughly monthlong time frame given to him by doctors.
So his plans to dress up as a ninja turtle for Halloween are back on.
"I feel good," Zayden told the Chicago Sun-Times. I want to "go trick-or-treating and have a party."
Or as Michelangelo might say, “Booyakasha!”
The boy and his family had little to celebrate over the last week.
Zayden and his 27-year-old uncle were both critically wounded in the shooting at his home just after 9 p.m. last Monday night in the 11600 block of South Yale Avenue, relatives and Chicago police said.
Gunmen outside in two cars fired into the home, with bullets ripping through several rooms and into the body of the boy and his uncle, who was outside.
Moments after he had been dancing in excitement over pizza night with his family, Zayden was shot in his back and grazed in his head.
Police have made no arrests.
Zayden's uncle had also been in critical condition when he was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn last week, but he was released from the hospital last week.
In the days after the attack, doctors at Comer removed half of Zayden's right lung and the top part of his left lung and removed part of the bullet from his chest.
Rosie Liggins, Zayden's grandmother, said doctors expected Zayden to be in the hospital for about four weeks.
“But God said otherwise," Liggins said Tuesday night.
To celebrate his early release, Zayden and his family went out to Golden Corral. It was his first request after leaving the hospital.
Asked what his favorite food at the restaurant was, Zayden responded, "Everything."
The boy has a follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks, Liggins said, but Zayden was in high spirits as he was surrounded by his favorite cousins and other family members.
Though she's happy Zayden is back with his family, Liggins says she's uncomfortable keeping him at home or with relatives and is keeping him elsewhere as she looks for an alternative.
Still, Liggins said she is grateful.
"We're just very excited that he's recovering just fine," Liggins said.