04:25 PM CDT on Thursday, July 13, 2006

From RUMBO de Houston & 11 News Staff Reports

The mother of 12-year-old Giovanni Ramirez is calling the man who saved her son’s arm a Godsend.

RUMBO de Houston

Ida Puente keeps watch over her son, Giovanni Ramirez, as he recovers at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

In an interview with RUMBO de Houston reporters Gustavo Rangel and Miguel Varela, Ida Puente said despite the accident, God was with her son.

Ramirez and his friends were playing by train tracks in north Houston earlier this month, when he fell and his arm was severed.

Luis Rubio III saw the injured 12-year-old running down the street with his friends.

He told RUMBO, “I was fixated on the injury. I told one of his friends to take off his shirt to put it on his wound. I called for my mother and told her to call 911. I then got an ice chest, filled it with ice and went looking for the arm with his friends.”

RUMBO de Houston

Luis Rubio III, the man credited with saving Giovanni Ramirez' arm, and his mother Graciela stand at the 12-year-old's bedside

Despite it all, Rubio told RUMBO Giovanni was calm.

Giovanni underwent a 7 hour re-attachment operation at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

"We're very pleased with his progress," said Dr. Sean Boutros, one of the three surgeons who operated on Giovanni Ramirez. "He's awake and responding to commands. I don't think he quite understand all that's happened now."

Doctors tell us Ramirez only lost three centimeters of bone.

"If you measure it you'll probably find the difference," Dr. Idris Gharbaoui said. "But if you just look at the patient. Two or three centimeters won't make a huge difference."

RUMBO de Houston

12-year-old Giovanni Ramirez

Surgeons sounded hopeful the boy will fully recover.

While he has moved his elbow, doctors said it will likely be a year and a half or two years before the boy has feeling all the way to his fingers. That's how long it takes for the nerves to regrow.

Ramirez remains in fair condition Monday at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Since the operation, RUMBO reported Puente has been at her son’s bedside, day and night.