Turkish Boy Injured in Quake Comes 8,400 Miles for Aid : Recovery: The 4-year-old, whose mother was killed while shielding him from the devastation, is flown to L.A. by relatives for treatment of his badly broken legs.

Sometimes at night, when 4-year-old Furkan Sankapan dreams about the killer quake that brought his house down around him nearly two weeks ago in Turkey, he calls out his mother’s name.

But when the thin boy with the big brown eyes wakes, he is 8,400 miles away in a Los Angeles hospital room, his mother nowhere to be seen.

Furkan’s mother died as she tried to shield him from the falling rubble of the 7.4-magnitude quake that killed as many as 40,000 people Aug. 17. She saved his life, but a ceiling beam crushed both of Furkan’s legs. When the boy was rescued, Turkish doctors said his legs would have to be amputated.

Now, however, Furkan is expected to keep his legs--thanks to his aunt and uncle from Bakersfield, who helped bring the injured boy and his father to the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center on Wednesday.

“If his legs can be saved, this place has the best chance of doing it,” the boy’s father, Haluk Sankapan, said through a translator from his son’s hospital room.

Furkan arrived with a moderate infection and slight dehydration. Both legs were fractured, a huge patch of skin torn from his right foot and a toe on his right foot was amputated by Turkish doctors.

But Kaiser doctors say Furkan’s chances of walking again are good.

“We are very optimistic about saving the legs,” said Dr. Brian Kimbrell, who has been treating Furkan.

Before the quake, Haluk Sankapan, 31, was a factory worker in Adapazari, a city about 80 miles east of Istanbul. His wife, Necla, 25, was nine months pregnant with their second child.

Furkan is a gregarious boy who was excited about riding his first bicycle, which his parents gave him on his fourth birthday in May.

The early-morning quake brought the family’s three-story apartment building down like a house of cards. A beam fell on Haluk Sankapan’s foot, trapping him in the living room where he had fallen asleep the night before. In the darkness, he called out to his wife in the bedroom but could only hear his son crying in pain.

Sankapan said he dug himself out of the rubble and, despite his fractured foot, worked with volunteers from a nearby village for more than six hours to dig the boy out. Necla, who had covered the boy with her body, did not survive.

In Bakersfield, Necla’s brother, Necmi Sanli, an electrical technician, and his wife, Lisa, saw the devastation on television and immediately flew to Turkey.

When they arrived, the couple said Turkish doctors were too busy with the flood of injuries to properly treat Furkan’s legs. “Everything was in chaos,” said Necmi Sanli.

The couple refused to let Turkish doctors amputate the boy’s legs. With the help of Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield) and the U.S. Embassy, the couple got visas for Furkan and his father and arranged for the boy to get treatment in the United States.

Haluk Sankapan gave his in-laws temporary guardianship of his son so the boy could get medical care through their Kaiser membership.

In the hospital room, decorated with stuffed animals, Sankapan said he is happy that his son will keep his legs, but he doesn’t know what kind of future they will have in Turkey.

“I will have to start from scratch,” he said, rubbing his tired eyes. “From nothing.”

Sankapan said he hasn’t told his son about his mother’s death, but the boy’s uncle said Furkan already knows something is wrong.

Furkan will probably remain in the hospital for a month, undergoing treatment for the infection and skin grafts to close the gash in his foot. Because of nerve damage, Kimbrell said, the boy will also need long-term rehabilitation to walk again.

But his family is optimistic. Furkan’s uncle said he has already promised the boy a new bicycle with training wheels to replace the one crushed in the quake.

Donations to the family can be sent to Haluk Sankapan, c/o the Public Affairs Department at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, 4747 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 90027.