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Alex Cabrero ReportingA Magna boy who was hit by a car two weeks ago is now home, but the driver who hit him is still nowhere to be found.
It's amazing the 13- year old is doing as well as he is after spending the two weeks in the hospital. Still, he has lots of physical therapy to go through and it could be years before he's even back to where he was before the accident.
Dmitry Ponder still wants to play the drums, snowboard fast down a hill and be the reckless teenager most boys his age are. However, doing so could cause him more harm right now. He's still healing and until whoever crashed into him turns themself in, that healing -- fully healing -- might not ever happen.
Looking at 13-year old Dmitry Ponder now you'd never believe just two weeks ago he was left for dead on the side of a road.
Dmitry Ponder, Hit by Car: "I know my soul is keeping the memory away from me."
Ponder was hit by a car while walking to school in Magna. The driver took off, never stopping to see if he was okay.
Dmitry Ponder: "I think it's really messed up."
Just as messed up is his leg, which has multiple fractures, his bruised eye, scrapes and scratches all over his body, and even more troubling is the damage done to his brain.
Christina Ponder, Dmitry's Mother: "He is completely different. He's not the same boy that walked out the door that morning. It's not bad, it's just completely different."
For as normal as Ponder looks on the outside right now, there's a lot more going on underneath the surface, things not even brain surgeons can say for sure. His parents say he's learning to do a lot of things all over again, like understanding laughter and sarcasm; and the once almost wild child has become very calm and peaceful.
Still, his parents are just happy to have him home alive. Now they're just hoping whoever hit him is soon known.
Dan Ponder, Dmitry's Father: "I can't imagine keeping a secret that deep. It's gotta be tearing them up."
Christina Ponder: "I don't think the person who did this is going to turn themselves in. I think enough time has passed. I don't have that much hope anymore for that person. Somebody else knows something."
Police don't have any leads right now, just that the car may have been a white minivan. The family has set up a fund at Zions Bank, but even more than that, they're just happy their son is going to be home for Christmas.
