BOY WOUNDED IN HATE SHOOTING MAY GO HOME SOON.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

Two weeks after he was shot and wounded at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, 5-year-old Benjamin Kadish's health has improved so much he might go home as early as Wednesday, hospital officials said.

And children at the center can't wait, as they've been sending Benjamin homemade get-well cards and posters, and counselors have called and visited him in the hospital.

``They're eager for him to come back to the center. Everybody's eager to see Ben,'' said Jeff Rouss, executive vice president of the Jewish Community Centers of Los Angeles. ``He's a sweet kid. Very, very sweet, and very brave.''

A week ago, his doctors at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles upgraded his condition to fair, where it remains. But if his healing and rehabilitation from gunshot wounds to his abdomen and left leg keep progressing, they plan to release him by the end of the week, said hospital spokesman Steve Rutledge.

``He seems to be in good spirits,'' said Rutledge, who visited the boy recently. ``He was sitting up and giving his older brother a hard time about something, good naturedly.''

He's been at Childrens Hospital since Aug. 11, the day after the shooting, when he was transferred from Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. Emergency surgery there saved his life, doctors said, as he had lost about a third of his blood supply from his bullet wounds.

``It's really sort of miraculous,'' Rouss said. Benjamin was in day camp at the community center in Granada Hills when he and four others were shot.

White supremacist Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr. has been charged in the attack, as well as the slaying later that day of mail carrier Joseph Ileto in Chatsworth.

HOW TO HELP

A fund has been created to help pay Benjamin Kadish's medical expenses. Donations can be made to the Benjamin Kadish Trust Fund, Wells Fargo Bank, 6001 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367.

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