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Homeless Man Has Unwanted Memento Of Heroics: Bullet

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By MIKE WELLS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 2, 2008

TAMPA - More than a week after he was shot saving a man from an assault, a bullet remains lodged above David Thomas' ankle, and he wonders whether anyone cares.

Thomas was shot last week at a bus stop on Waters Avenue after he stopped an attack on a 75-year-old man and the theft of the man's adult-size tricycle, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

The 42-year-old homeless man said he didn't think twice before intervening.

"I would do it again - instinctively, unconsciously," Thomas said. "It was the right thing to do at the time."

Sitting on a bench outside Tampa General Hospital on Tuesday afternoon, he looked down at a soft cast encasing his left ankle and grimaced.

"It's unbearable," he said.

Thomas said he doesn't know whether the bullet will be taken out. Even if it can be, he said, he is without the means to pay for medical care. Unless he can stand and walk, he can't work, Thomas said.

He's not asking for a handout - just help, he said.

The shooting happened April 21 in the Town 'N Country area. Thomas had just been to a job interview for a cook's position, he said.

While waiting for a bus, he saw a young man swipe Teodoro Ferrer's tricycle and swing at the 75-year-old's head. Thomas intervened, and the young man pulled a gun and shot them both, he said.

"I never knew I was shot until I went over to the old man to console him and I looked down at my ankle and saw the blood," Thomas said.

The bullet passed through Ferrer's left leg, Ferrer said. He left St. Joseph's Hospital the same day he was shot.

The man arrested in the shootings, Davon Olajuwon Church, 18, remains in Falkenburg Road Jail with no bail set.

Thomas also was taken to St. Joseph's, where doctors treated his wound but didn't remove the bullet, he said.

"I figured they'd take it out right away," he said.

Instead, he was patched up and given antibiotics and about four days' worth of painkillers, he said. When he ran out of medicine, Thomas went to Tampa General, where he was examined, given more medicine and a referral to an orthopedics center, he said.

He said doctors told him the swelling must go down before surgery can be considered.

Both hospitals wrote Thomas prescriptions for painkillers, but he said he has no money to buy them.

"I don't want this bullet in me," Thomas said. "I can't heal with this bullet in my ankle. It's not just a health issue. It's about my ability to make a living."

St. Joseph's spokeswoman Lisa Patterson said there are options available to patients in need of financial help.

The Hillsborough HealthCare Program provides primary and specialty care, inpatient and outpatient treatment, pharmaceuticals and services that are considered medically necessary, the county health department's Web site says.

Thomas is new to Hillsborough County and said he was unaware of any programs that could help him. "I'm below poverty level now as it is," he said. He would be more than willing to repay any organization that can cover the costs, he said.

"I just need to be able to work," he said.

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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