MALVEAUX: Growing up in Washington, Thomas McRae was shuffled from home to home, 22 in all, half of them in foster care. Well, he's overcome a lot, as CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us in today's "Human Factor."</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And 20-year-old Thomas McRae knows what it's like to have people walk out of his life.</s>THOMAS MCRAE, SURVIVED GUNSHOT WOUND: My dad took me away from my mom at birth.</s>GUPTA: But his father was ill and had difficulty caring for him.</s>MCRAE: I was in 11 homes.</s>GUPTA: He was 10 when his life changed dramatically.</s>MCRAE: I was shot.</s>GUPTA: By a 14-year-old who was living in the home where he had been taken in at the time.</s>MCRAE: I had to learn how to walk again.</s>GUPTA: Fortunately, the paralysis was temporary, but McRae was still suffering from a different kind of pain.</s>MCRAE: There was anger, rage, aggression.</s>GUPTA: And then the nightmares began.</s>MCRAE: When I close myself I remember seeing myself being shot.</s>GUPTA: After the shooting the sixth grader was moved into foster care and was promptly diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression,</s>ADHD. MCRAE: I was finally able to get the proper treatment I need.</s>GUPTA: He went on to live in 11 different foster homes. As a senior in high school McRae asked his best friend's mother, whom he had known since sixth grade, if she would adopt him, and she did.</s>MCRAE: It was the greatest day.</s>GUPTA: McRae just completed an internship with Maryland senator Ben Cardin, where he talked to legislators about aging out of the foster system. He's back at school now studying psychology at Cheney University. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
Boy Overcomes Gunshot Wounds and Foster Care