Kali­fa Clyne

A Sea Lots fam­i­ly re­ceived their very own Christ­mas mir­a­cle one day be­fore the big day as Ryan Ram­per­sad, a vic­tim of the Feb­ru­ary 24 ac­ci­dent that claimed three lives and in­jured three peo­ple, re­turned home af­ter ten months.Friends, neigh­bours and well-wish­ers vis­it­ed the home of Ram­per­sad's grand­moth­er Vero James, where Ryan would be stay­ing un­til to­day.Ram­per­sad waved at neigh­bours, call­ing some by name, as he moved his legs and arms, his eyes wide and mouth open.

Ryan has come a long way from be­ing 98 per cent paral­ysed, with on­ly the abil­i­ty to move his eyes, in Au­gust.Back then, doc­tors had told the fam­i­ly noth­ing more could be done for him.When a T&T Guardian team vis­it­ed, Ram­per­sad's moth­er Pearl James stood near the gate of the house, dis­trib­ut­ing gifts of toys to neigh­bour­hood chil­dren."Mer­ry Christ­mas," Ram­per­sad said af­ter say­ing ac­knowl­edg­ing the Guardian team.

Ram­per­sad was brought home from the St James Med­ical Com­plex by his boss at his for­mer job, Caribbean Crane Op­er­a­tors, at around 11 am on Christ­mas Eve.While at home, Ram­per­sad will be cared for by his grand­moth­er Vero, who was trained by nurs­es to con­tin­ue his phys­io­ther­a­py and to ad­min­is­ter his med­ica­tion."I feel very good. I vis­it­ed him at the hos­pi­tal every day and I am so glad that he is home," Vero said.

Vero could not say whether or not Ram­per­sad would be vis­it­ed by his wife and two chil­dren. She said she would have to call to see if the chil­dren's moth­er would bring them to vis­it him.Vero asked for any­body will­ing to as­sist or make do­na­tions to Ram­per­sad to con­tact her, as she said some pre­vi­ous do­na­tions had not reached him."I knew he would have been home," Pearl, Ram­per­sad's moth­er, said.In a pre­vi­ous in­ter­view, Pearl, who said she prayed every day, said she had no doubt of her son's re­cov­ery.

"This is just the be­gin­ning," she said. "He will soon be able to walk in­to this house, in­stead of be­ing wheeled in. He will be as healthy and as strong as be­fore."Asked how she was so cer­tain of Ram­per­sad's full re­cov­ery, she re­spond­ed with three words: "Faith in God."Po­lice Con­sta­ble Sher­win Leg­ere, a po­lice­man for the past 15 years, is charged with three of­fences of caus­ing death by dan­ger­ous dri­ving to Haydee Paul and her daugh­ters, Akasha, eight and Shaki­ra, sev­en.

The three were struck and killed while walk­ing along a pave­ment on Beetham High­way, Port of Spain, on the morn­ing of Feb­ru­ary 24.