ALEXANDER HOOD Eight-year-old Alexander Hood remains in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Greenville Memorial Hospital six days after being struck by a hit-and-run driver.

Alexander is stable but remains in critical condition, his mother, Debra Hood, said Tuesday. He has undergone two surgeries and remains on a ventilator. Doctors have said they hope to be able to take him off the ventilator as early as today.

"I know God gives the doctors the knowledge to know what to do, but God is the ultimate physician," Alexander's grandmother Maggie Thomas of Gaffney said. "He's been in God's hands and he is still in God's hands. I know so many prayers have gone up for him. I thank everybody for their prayers."

The child suffered a fractured skull and ruptured liver. An initial diagnosis indicated he had a ruptured spleen but doctors later determined his spleen and kidneys were just badly bruised, his mother said.

"There are so many people I need to thank for their prayers and everything else they have done," Debra Hood said. "The doctors say he's going to make it and everything is looking good. They won't give me a time frame and say it's just according to how his body heals. He's really been through it. He's doing better but it's still very hard for us. We're having to stay at the hospital 24/7."

On Tuesday, Debra and her husband, Clint, made their first trip home since the accident but returned to the hospital that evening. They, along with their daughter, are sleeping in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit waiting room so they can be close by in case Alexander or the doctors need them.

Alexander was airlifted to the Greenville medical facility after the 4 p.m. accident Thursday. The Hoods' 2003 Chevy Cavalier overturned at Grace and Vernon streets after being struck by another vehicle.

Debra Hood suffered a concussion and whiplash while Clint suffered a black eye and bruised ribs. Alexander's sister, 15-year-old Ashley, suffered a sprained arm.

"My daughter is doing real good, and praise God for that, I don't know what I would have done if she had been badly hurt also," Debra said. "We need all the prayers and help we can get."

Police arrested Brian Jamel Littlejohn, 17, of 222 Monroe St., Gaffney, at 11:20 p.m. Thursday. He is charged with hit and run with personal injury, operation of an uninsured vehicle, driving without a driver's license and disregarding a stop sign. He remains jailed.

Littlejohn is accused of running a stop sign and striking the Hoods' vehicle. Police said they believe Littlejohn and another black male ran from the accident scene.