Rescued Mexicali Youngster Who ‘Wanted to Be Brave’ Goes Home

Wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “Hug A Tree” and a big smile, Jesus Antonio (Pepin) Garcia, the 7-year-old Mexicali boy who was lost in the Cuyamaca woods for three days, was wheeled out of Children’s Hospital Monday on the start of his journey home.

“I wasn’t scared,” Jesus said in Spanish of the days and nights spent alone in the mountains. “I just kept cutting the branches with my hands to make a path home,” he said, explaining the many scratches on his arms and face.

“I wanted to be brave,” said Jesus, who said he never cried but instead spent most of his time walking.

“I kept thinking, when they find me, they’ll think I’m brave,” said Jesus, who wore camouflage slippers.

Except for dehydration and minor cuts and bruises, Jesus seemed to make it through the ordeal relatively unscathed, physically and emotionally.

“I didn’t sleep; I rested and just kept walking,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. He added that he was pretty tired; the first thing he planned to do was rest.

His father, Antonio Garcia, a technical assistant engineer in Mexicali, said “we need the rest, too,” referring to himself and his wife, Corina, who could do nothing during the ordeal but wait. He said it looked as if his son had gained a few pounds since he began his five-day stay in the hospital.

Garcia said he is happy that his son has recovered and added that the three-day nightmare won’t stop his family from going on camping trips.

“We’re going to take him camping again to a safe campsite, so he won’t be afraid of the mountains,” Garcia said.

Jesus agreed to go camping again, “but not to the same place,” the father said.

Corina Garcia stood beaming behind her spunky son. She said she can finally relax, noting that Jesus will probably return next week to Sergio Marquez Elementary School, where he is a second-grader.

“I miss my friends,” Jesus said. He said he will explain his long absence to his three girlfriends as soon as he returns home. Before he climbed into his family’s pick-up truck, he jumped up from the wheelchair, gave a few people hugs and shook a few hands. “You’re beautiful,” he said to a woman reporter as he shook her hand.

His father shrugged, and both parents agreed that Jesus hadn’t changed a bit.

Jesus wandered away from his family’s Green Valley Falls campsite about 3 p.m. Oct. 16 while he and his twin brother, Fernando, were having a contest to see who could find the biggest pine cone.

More than 200 people from the sheriff’s search-and-rescue unit looked for Jesus until a group of 13 Marines found the boy sitting on a dirt path three days later.

Jesus was taken to Children’s Hospital, where he recuperated. James Boyland, vice president of the hospital, said that the boy’s medical bill came to $22,615 and that the family will pay the bill on a monthly basis.

The hospital, however, has set up a donation fund. If too much money is collected, the surplus will go toward other families’ bills. Donations can be sent to the Garcia Fund, Children’s Hospital, 8001 Frost St., San Diego, 92123.