Aunt Brisa picks him up, grandmother Fabiana adjusts the wheelchair and great-grandmother Carmen gives directions.
Tiziano plays with his tablet, hypnotized, without noticing the move.
They are taking him to the ground floor, where
he has to do daily rehabilitation to regain mobility in his legs
, something he is longing for.
We are in room 210 on the second floor of the Pedro Elizalde Hospital, where Tizi is serving a year of hospitalization after that fateful afternoon of March 10, 2023.
Fabiana Muñiz (45) is the grandmother of Tiziano Tahiel Ñancuchen (5).
They were both that tragic Friday in Plaza Constitución, when after five in the afternoon
an unexpected shooting forced hundreds of people passing by to throw themselves on the ground
in what turned out to be an indescribable scene.
One of the shots that the Dominican Enrique Ambiorix Evangelista - both homeless - fired against the Peruvian Ambrosio Benítez was aimed at the humanity of little Tiziano, then 4 years old.
The temperature that Friday afternoon exceeded 35 degrees and Buenos Aires was going through another heat wave.
Tiziano, bare-chested, was sitting on a bench, resting, after
helping his grandmother gather cans to later sell at a fair
.
They had had lunch in a community kitchen and grandmother and grandson were about to take the bus to their home in the Don Orione neighborhood, in Claypole.
Tiziano was entertained - according to witnesses - looking at the buses that circulated along Juan de Garay Avenue while drinking a soda.
At that time, crowds were walking through the square.
"From one moment to the next I feel like firecrackers, I look around us trying to understand and
when I look back at Tiziano I don't see him... It was two seconds until I found him lying face
down behind the bench where he was with a red hole in the back".
The baby was bleeding from the stray bullet.
Fabiana screamed desperately, while caressing and kissing her grandson's head.
"My tummy hurts, my tummy hurts a lot
," the little boy complained loudly.
"You're fine, stay calm, leave your eyes open. You'll be fine, the doctors are coming."
Playing "Free Fire".
In the room on the second floor of the Elizalde Hospital with his aunt Brisa.
Two weeks after the misfortune, the grandmother told
Clarín
what she had experienced.
"In the first hours he had three operations because the bullet that entered through the back compromised the pancreas, the liver and the intestine...
And the legs, I don't know, they are complicated
," the woman shared, at that time, with enormous concern.
Hopeful future
A year later, Tiziano is still in the Pedro Elizalde Hospital, out of danger.
The doctors saved his life, but
they could not - at least for now - make him walk again due to the damage caused by the bullet.
As
Clarín
was able to find out in the hallways of the former Casa Cuna, "the evolution of Tizi - as they call him here -" surprises day by day and although today his right leg does not respond as we would like, we think that his mobility will improve ".
In one year Fabiana,
the grandmother, lost 30 kilos
.
"Look at my belly, I have... Nothing to do with when we saw each other that time (for the note dated March 25, 2023). I haven't moved from here, I've been next to the fat man for a year, who
was dying and now look at it, it's really a miracle
. "
Fabiana expresses harshness, a face of few friends, she is of few words, but families admitted to the hospital praise her sacrifice, selflessness and generosity for her grandson.
room, pleasant, bright and spacious
The room, spacious and bright, was transformed into a small apartment
since last October, when he was transferred from intensive care.
Here the grandson and grandmother have breakfast, lunch and dinner, but aunt, great-grandmother and Mirta, the caregiver who joined a few weeks ago, usually join in.
Brisa (23), a physical education student, talks to the chronicler while Tiziano does not take off the
tablet
that Javier Indart, the director of Elizalde, gave her, where she watches Tik-Tok videos and movies.
"He is as you see him, in
good spirits, he has fun, he plays, he chats
. Sometimes he gets down because he wants to go back home and meet up with his friends from the garden," Tiziano's aunt slips.
During 2023, two teachers visited the boy
daily so that he did not lose ground in the educational field
.
"The young lady came when she was in intensive care and she continued when she went to this room. She is making important progress, she writes her name, the numbers from one to ten, although messy and she draws a lot."
Grandma Fabiana, who lives with Tiziano in the hospital, and Aunt Brisa.
"What happened with Tizi is a miracle," they agree.
Carmen is the matriarch of the family, the authoritative and respected voice.
She is 82 years old and is the one who comes and goes from Claypole bringing food, candy and toys.
She is Fabiana's mother and Tiziano's great-grandmother, who calls her grandmother mama and her great-grandmother abu.
Ailén, her real mother, is detained in the Ezeiza prison
and visits her son when she obtains the relevant permission.
"Tizi sometimes wants to be with his mother and other times he doesn't. He has a predilection for his grandmother."
We're all heading towards kinesiology.
And Tiziano is the one who handles his wheelchair with amazing ease.
He is received by Noemi Ledesma, the specialist who has been at the hospital for decades.
"Her right leg
has retractions, muscle shortenings, less mobility than her left leg
, and although she is not one hundred percent, she responds to stimuli," explains the professional while she tells the child the exercises to do. .
Tiziano is given knee and valve stabilizers to support his foot, which allows him to have greater firmness when trying to move his legs.
"He is a boy with a strong trunk,
the problem is from the waist down and his rehabilitation is essential
because he is in full development and growth, so there is a certain risk that he could grow up with malformations," warns Ledesma.
Brisa accompanies her nephew in kinesiology time, while Fabiana and Carmen wait sitting in a hall outside.
The specialist takes advantage of Clarín
's note
to call for solidarity.
"They have been requested by the hospital but they have not yet arrived and every day that passes is a day lost. Tiziano needs to travel in another wheelchair,
in a suitable, self-propelled one, with a pelvic belt and anti-roll wheels
, because a month ago he fell and "He broke his leg. And another important tool for his recovery is a posterior walker."
Since leaving intensive care at the end of September, Tiziano "improved a little every day. There is still a long road ahead and it is
still not known when he will be able to walk again on his own power
. I feel that the journey is long, but "We are on the right track," estimates Ledesma while carefully observing the boy's movements.
Fabiana and Brisa, next to Tiziano, at the entrance to the kinesiology area.
"Tizi's thing is a miracle, honestly
the effort of those doctors was commendable
because truly, when Tiziano arrived his life expectancy was very low," says Brisa, while accompanying the chronicler to the meeting with the grandmother and great-grandmother.
Fabiana, Carmen and Brisa remember a talk with the clinical doctor Valeria Aprea, responsible for Tiziano's evolution in intensive care.
"One Thursday before Easter, the doctor brought the family together and told us to
say goodbye to Tizi
, that unfortunately there was little to do," recalls Fabiana.
"He told us
'gather your courage, there's nothing left to do'.
It was a tremendous bomb. But on Monday, four days later, he called us. 'Forget what I told you. Today
the improvement was brutal
.' Nobody could believe it "Imagine that the medical staff was very surprised."
Kiara is a mother who had her son hospitalized for several months with severe heart disease and
forged a close friendship with Fabiana
based on the contingencies of her son and grandson respectively.
"I was there, in intensive care with my baby, listening to everything they did to Tiziano," she tells this medium in another part of the hospital.
"The doctors had almost given him up
, but since he was so young they did not relax their efforts and, gradually, he began to show signs of improvement. I swear that
no one could believe it, not even the doctors themselves
, who said that the bullet he received Tizi had entered through the column and destroyed every organ in his path."
When Kiara entered the Elizalde with her son, Tiziano had been hospitalized for ten days.
"When I arrived I was asleep, in a coma, and
I saw his condition with my own eyes
. His tummy was literally a black hole. I remember that in the first two months that I was with my son,
they took Tizi up at least once. per week to the operating room".
Kiara says that she created a very strong bond with Tiziano.
"He is a sweetheart, it is very difficult not to feel captivated by that little boy, not only because of his strength, but because
he is a beautiful chatterbox
, who is always in a good mood. The batteries he has, he is a boy who transmits his energy and his joy "There is no doubt that he will be missed. I hope he recovers and that rehabilitation can restore mobility in his legs.
He deserves it for his unwavering effort."
Between joy and the uncertain future
While it is hard to see a five-year-old boy in a wheelchair, nothing is final, and you have to watch the whole movie.
"He leads a practically normal life. He walks through the Elizalde park, plays, sings,
he is the joy of the hospital
. He is a very active boy and lives every day as if nothing had ever happened to him," the grandmother and great-grandmother agree.
Tiziano likes to "walk" around the hospital and "he handles himself with ease, alone, under our gaze, with his wheelchair," says his family.
"We have lived endless days and nights where the darkness was closer than the light. I saw everything here, many mothers crying for their babies who died... But today,
thanks to the doctors and our selflessness and perseverance
, the panorama is different. God did not forget about us," says Fabiana, who goes to thank the church every day.
"My life changed a lot this year, not only physically, I lost a lot of weight... I am calmer, less intoxicated,
life in the hospital has ordered me a lot
, I just have to make an effort to relax with my fist, since I smoke a pack a day," says the grandmother.
Fabiana, Tiziano's grandmother, a year ago, in her meeting with Clarín.
Regarding medical discharge, the family feels that "it is getting closer," although the doctors want to resolve the colostomy bag that Tiziano uses.
In another order, both Fabiana, her grandmother, and Carmen, her great-grandmother,
are worried about the little one's future home
.
"We have had meetings with a psychologist and a social worker, who told us that Tizi's housing issue is not adequate."
"As you will see there is a lot of love here, we are present all the time, the issue is that we need help financially, but
we do not want Tiziano to go to a home, without his family
. Can you do something so that they can give us a house?" , the great-grandmother consults this chronicler.
From the City government, they responded that "a hearing is about to be held for Tiziano's possession, which has not yet been defined. There was a family conflict and
Justice took custody approximately two months ago
until determining who will have it. You can that they give it back to the grandmother (Fabiana), although there is also the chance to send him to a home.
Expressions of concern invade the faces of Carmen, Fabiana and Brisa.
"We are waiting for news from the lawyer."
The kinesiologist reappears with Tiziano,
visibly tired from the effort of the session, but always with a smile.
The aunt lends him her cell phone and Tizi starts playing Fire Free.
"I'm the champion at killing zombies," he repeats, staring at the screen.
P.S.