A savage assault in Ocean Beach in February left Australian tourist Robert Schneider with life-threatening injuries but has not quelled his indomitable spirit or love of travel.
The 26-year-old was released from UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest on Friday evening and has returned to Adelaide after five weeks of rehabilitation in San Diego. He said, however, he is still eager to get back up on a surfboard and quench his thirst for adventure.
On Feb. 27, Schneider was brutally beaten unconscious with a skateboard and thrown into a blazing fire pit at the foot of Abbott Street in Ocean Beach. Schneider spent two weeks in a medically induced coma and had multiple skin grafts to treat 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns on his upper chest, back and stomach.
He will receive follow-up treatment at a trauma burn center in Adelaide and will be fitted with pressure garments to help with any scarring. He is healing well after reconstructive surgery on a severe skull fracture and a shattered eye socket.
Schneider and his parents, Peter and Judy, held a news conference at the hospital Thursday to express their gratitude to the doctors and nurses who saw them through their darkest hour.
“He was pretty bashed up. It was horror, and I was broken,” said Judy Schneider. “The surgeries they performed on him have really returned him to life for us, and
we are so grateful. We know that God had no intentions to let our son die in that fire, and this is a testament to that.”
Peter Schneider agreed.
“Their compassion, their understanding, their love, has kept us up because there were days where we would have gone down,” said Peter Schneider.
It was a team effort, according to Dr. Bruce Potenza, director of the Regional Burn Center.
“I’m hopeful that you’ve seen the best that our country has to offer after having lived through the worst,” Potenza said.
He said Robert Schneider surpassed medical expectations and is expected to make a full recovery but that he may experience symptoms consistent with a traumatic brain injury.
“Headaches, memory loss, concentration, slight personality changes, and over time I would expect those to improve,” Potenza said.
The Schneiders praised the response from the San Diego community.
“There were two bad people in San Diego; there’s been thousands of people that have poured their hearts out to us,” Peter Schneider said. “We can be standing here smiling today. Five weeks ago we were bawling our eyes out, really upset “” the people of San Diego have lifted us up.”
While the Schneiders are relieved by the recent arrests of two transients linked to Robert Schneider’s beating ” Damian Maple, 21, and Frank Montoya, 46, in Idaho and Oregon, respectively, on felony torture and mayhem charges ” they said their first responsibility is to their son.
Maple, who has since been extradited to California, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment in San Diego court Monday. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Montoya has yet to be extradited, according to prosecutors.
“They need to stand accounted for what they did to Robert; that’s not acceptable,” Peter Schneider said. “But, from our point of view, Robert’s alive (and) he’s recovering.”
The case was brought to a successful resolution through the joint efforts of police and witnesses who came forward.
“In all honesty, this is probably one of the more brutal, sadistic-type crimes that I’ve heard, and I think that this thing just got out of hand,” said Capt. Bill Edwards of the police department’s Western Division.
Even before the Feb. 27 incident, recent media reports of crimes against overseas travelers left family members concerned, they said.
“Robert’s been away since May last year and there was always that little niggling thing in the back of the head, ‘We hope it doesn’t happen to us,'” Peter Schneider said.
With the life-altering event behind him, Robert Schneider had a few parting words for the city that embraced him.
“Thank you, everyone. Thank you, San Diego,” he said.
For gifts to the Friends of Robert Schneider Fund at Wells Fargo Bank (account No. 7707402199), make checks payable to: “Friends of Robert Schneider,” Outdoor Travel Adventures, c/o “Robert Schneider Campaign,” P.O. Box 60084, San Diego, 92166.
Additionally, a fundraising dinner event is planned for Sunday, April 13 from 2 to 6 p.m. at Bondi, 333 5th Ave. in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown. Admission is $8 and includes an Australian barbecue, a live band and a raffle for grand prizes: two tickets to Australia and a trip for two to Fiji.
For more information, e-mail [email protected].