RUSKIN — Natasha Wood cooked chicken for a New's Year Eve family dinner, wondering why her 13-year-old son hadn't arrived.

Cameron Fuller had ridden his new Christmas present, a black BMX bicycle, to a recreation center about a mile and a half from his family's home on SW Ninth Avenue. He should have been home, Wood thought.

Then came a knock on the door. The friend Cameron was riding with stood on the doorstep with his parents.

"The boy was hysterical crying," Wood recalled Tuesday.

Cameron had been hit by a car on U.S. 41, the family told Wood. She rushed to the scene to find Cameron's bike and Nike Air sneakers lying in the roadway. Her son had already been airlifted to Tampa General Hospital.

"The worst that I could possibly imagine was going through my mind," Wood said. "I knew it wasn't going to be good."

Cameron was listed in serious but stable condition Tuesday and the Florida Highway Patrol was still searching for the driver who struck him and kept going.

Troopers believe Cameron was hit by a green Chevrolet Suburban, model year 2000 to 2006. The Suburban should have damage in the area of the left headlight.

The crash happened about 7:20 p.m. Saturday. Cameron was crossing U.S. 41 south of a marked crosswalk when he was hit by the southbound Suburban as it traveled the inside lane. The Suburban continued heading south, troopers said.

Doctors have Cameron heavily sedated, and he hasn't woken up, Wood said. He has a collapsed lung, a punctured kidney and staples in the back of his head to close a large cut.

"They expect him to pull through, but they don't know yet about brain damage," Wood said.

Cameron was enrolled in Brandon Alternative School before the winter break but was supposed to start at Beth Shields Middle School today, Wood said.

Her son already had proved he's a fighter.

Cameron was born four months premature, weighing just shy of 2 pounds, and doctors weren't sure he would survive. Surgeons had to repair double hernias when he was still in the neonatal intensive care unit. He pulled through and grew up small for his age.

She described Cameron, the youngest of four siblings, as a good kid, but a little on the quiet side.

His new bike expanded his world.

"He doesn't have many friends in the neighborhood and is usually home all the time. Once we got him this bike, he met up with a friend down the street and they've been riding for days."

She has a message for the driver of the Suburban.

"I would tell them to turn themselves in. This is unacceptable. You don't just hit a child or anybody and take off."

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Florida Highway Patrol at (813) 631-4020 or Crime Stoppers at toll-free 1-800-873-8477. To report anonymously online, go to crimestopperstb.com or send a mobile tip using the P3 Tips Mobile application.

Contact Tony Marrero at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3374. Follow @tmarrerotimes.