One minute, DeWayne Hutchinson was a dutiful big brother, out to avenge a perceived wrong done to his younger sister. The next, he was injured beyond repair — paralyzed from the neck down at age 18.
The chain of events leading up to the tragic incident happened March 12. DeWayne's sister Camille, 14, got into a food fight with a girl and boy in the Centreville High cafeteria.
"She got upset because the boy threw food in her hair," said her mother, Katrina Hutchinson. "They had words and it escalated into a physical fight. I was called in to the school, and both [Camille and the boy] were suspended for two days."
IN HIS SENIOR year at Chantilly High, DeWayne heard about the incident from Camille and other students. Later that day, upset about what happened to her, he went to the boy's Centre Ridge neighborhood and approached him on the street.
DeWayne, who weighed about 135 pounds and is tall and thin, came with two friends. The boy — an athlete twice DeWayne's weight — had three buddies with him.
According to Hutchinson, her son asked the boy if he'd hit Camille. The boy denied any wrongdoing and restrained DeWayne's arms. "Then he let him go, and DeWayne swung at him," said Hutchinson. "Then the boy picked him up around his waist and slammed him down on the ground. DeWayne hit his head on the driver's side of a parked car and blacked out. When he came to, he tried to get up and couldn't move."
He was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital, but had sustained a spinal-cord injury just below the neck — resulting in quadriplegia from the neck down. He also received an injury to his brain but, said his mother, "Thank God, it didn't cause him any mental problems."
Hutchinson is a single mother who lives in Centreville's Castellani Meadows community with her two children and her niece Janee, also 14. And former Centreville High Principal Pam Latt has only kind words to say about her. "She's a lovely woman and is concerned about her children," said Latt.
The family moved here from Washington, D.C., in November 2001. "DeWayne isn't a perfect child, but he is a mild-mannered child," said Hutchinson. "That's why we moved from D.C. — to get away from the violence."
However, the move was not without problems. "DeWayne was an honor-roll student when he came here, but had a hard struggle trying to fit into his new neighborhood," explained his mother. "He was at Centreville High first, but left after one year and went to Chantilly where his grades improved."
In fact, she said, after his accident, he was still determined to graduate, so the school sent his work to him and he passed all his classes with A's and B's. Meanwhile, he was receiving treatment at Kluge Rehabilitation Center in Charlottesville, where he'd been since April 6.
DeWayne returned home May 26 and graduated with his classmates on June 15. "He got his cap and gown, and I rolled him across the stage [to receive his diploma]," said Hutchinson. "I'll never forget that moment. I was so proud of him."
THEN IT WAS back to the reality of his 'round-the-clock care. Hutchinson does administrative work at Miller's Office Products in Springfield, and a co-worker donated a wheelchair to DeWayne. Although Camille and Janee help, the bulk of the responsibility for his total care — feeding, bathing, etc. — falls on his mother.
"He's on a hospital bed in the living room of our townhouse until we can move to a handicap-accessible place," said Hutchinson. "And right now, it's so hard to get him in and out. I'm in desperate need of getting some accessible housing."
It's also difficult for her to load him into the car and get him out again for visits to and from doctors' appointments. "I've been waving people down and asking them for help, or paying for an accessible cab," said Hutchinson. "So if anyone has any transportation information or a van to sell or donate, I'd be so grateful. We really need the help."
Anyone who can offer Hutchinson some help with either her housing or transportation needs may call her at 703-988-0467 or on her cell phone, 202-744-3758. She could also use some nursing assistance or, she said, "someone just to sit with DeWayne so I can go to the grocery store."
She'll get a small break, however, beginning this week, when her son will go to the Woodrow Wilson Vocational Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville, near Charlotte. There, he'll learn how to eat, drive and, hopefully, use a computer keyboard with a splint. And he'll receive physical and occupational therapy.
Hutchinson has remained home from work with her son since he returned from Kluge. She'll go back to her job while he's gone, but will then have to depend on her daughter and niece — both young teen-agers — to look after him while she's at work.
A MEDICAL TEAM will come in, three to five hours a day, for awhile. But, said Hutchinson, "No one will help during the night when I have to get up and catheter him. And I still have to go to work, the next morning."
And, of course, DeWayne's abrupt change from an active teen into a person in a wheelchair was a tremendous adjustment for him, too. "When this first happened, he was emotionally distraught," said his mother. "He kept asking me, 'Will I be able to walk?' And I couldn't bring myself to tell him. He was in critical condition, and I didn't want to hurt him, so I had to ease into it."
However, she said, DeWayne's friends have been a great source of support for him. They come visit him every day and, sometimes, take him to the mall or to the movies. The rest of the time, he watches TV or sleeps, and he receives physical and occupational therapy three times a week, at home.
"Everybody is in shock about what happened, but we've just had to accept it, as best we can, and move on," said Hutchinson. "And this tragedy has brought all of us so much closer together. I'm just glad DeWayne is alive and wasn't brain-injured. He has a good sense of humor and a wonderful spirit, and that's what keeps me going."
As for DeWayne, he readily acknowledges and appreciates his mother's care, help, love and undying faith in him. "She's done better than the hospital did with my care," he said. "I love her — she's the best mother in the world." As for how he copes with his new condition, he said, "It's hard, but I just take one day at a time."
Contributions toward his medical care, payable to DeWayne Hutchinson, may be sent to Commonwealth One Federal Credit Union, c/o DeWayne Hutchinson's Account, P.O. Box 9997, Alexandria, VA 22304-0797.