HANAMAULU – Jaycie Kobayashi sits in a hospital bed in her father’s living room, paralyzed from the shoulders down. One day melds into another as she plays with her iPhone using a stylus with a mouthpiece to manage her communication.
HANAMAULU – Jaycie Kobayashi sits in a hospital bed in her father’s living room, paralyzed from the shoulders down.
One day melds into another as she plays with her iPhone using a stylus with a mouthpiece to manage her communication. She’s bored, frustrated and wonders how she ended up seriously injured on the shoulder of a stretch of Kuhio Highway, north of Kapaa, shortly after midnight Oct. 10, 2013.
“I want justice and I want to move on,” said Kobayashi. “If I don’t get my legs back I want to at least get the use of the arms back.”
The 2010 Kauai High School graduate said she had been dating for over a year. On that fall night, the couple set out to celebrate her boyfriend’s friend’s birthday. Reflecting back, she sees how the relationship with the man had been rocky from the start.
“We were fighting before we even got to Duke’s,” remembers Kobayashi.
The rest of the evening included more arguments between the two at a cocktail lounge.
“I didn’t want to cause a scene so I left with him,” said Kobayashi. “I asked him to take me to my auntie’s house in Kapaa and he wouldn’t.”
Everything after that point is a blur for the most part, except a vague recollection she said of him banging her head on the dashboard of the truck.
Liliana Trpkovski found Kobayashi that night on Kuhio Highway when a friend was driving her home.
“I saw a man wildly flailing his arms above his head in the middle of the road. It looked like a dog was lying nearby. As we got closer, I realized it was a girl and yelled, ‘Stop the car,’ and I jumped out,” she said.
Trpkovski said the figure was actually a woman lying on her back.
“She was still breathing, but gurgling,” said Trpkovski. “I know CPR but I couldn’t tell if Kobayashi’s chest was filling up with blood, so I didn’t do it.”
Meanwhile, Trpkovski urged her friend to try to calm down the man who she said was cursing and visibly drunk and high.
“His story was not quite right,” said Trpkovski. “In my mind, he tried to kill her. I don’t know why he wasn’t arrested. Even the police officer I talked to at the hospital said, ‘Something is not right.’”
She said he was yelling, “She’s gonna die,” while she held Kobayashi’s hand and said to her, “This is not the day you are going to die. You are going to dance at your wedding.”
Kobayashi’s father Jason said, “I strongly believe something terrible was done to my daughter.”
Trpkovski and her friend followed the ambulance to Wilcox Memorial Hospital and waited until the morning to hear what would happen to the woman.
There is little information available about the accident other than this report from the county: “At roughly 12:25 a.m. on Oct. 10, 2013, police responded to a report of a single-vehicle collision that occurred on Kuhio Highway in Wailua, near Old Marine Camp Road, that resulted in injuries to a female at the scene.”
It is anticipated that KPD’s investigation will be completed by the end of the month, at which time it will be forwarded to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. No arrests have yet been made.
When asked if she was run over, Jaycie Kobayashi, of Hanamaulu, said, “Probably, not intentionally, but probably. I have a mark on my back that looks like a tire mark.”
Little hope is being given for the Hanamaulu woman as far as regaining the use of her legs or arms due to the C3 and C4 spinal injuries that were inflicted.
“Nobody knows why my daughter is like this,” said Lisa Kobayashi, while sitting at her daughter Jaycie’s side.
The boyfriend declined to comment for the story. He is not being named because he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
“I want peace for my daughter,” said Lisa. “And I want justice. Alcohol was involved and everybody makes mistakes but if something isn’t done, it could happen again and cost someone else their life. We want to turn our wounds into wisdom. My daughter is here healing and accepting what has happened.”
Her father said the family’s lives have changed.
He hasn’t slept in his bed for three months since she returned in December from Queen’s Trauma Center in Oahu where she was treated and later underwent rehabilitation. Instead, he attempts to sleep each night while at her side on a couch for easy access whenever she wakes up and needs help.
“For me, it’s about making sure my daughter is happy and healthy and that she gets what she needs throughout the day,” he said.
As for Trpkovski, who stayed with Kobayashi until paramedics arrived that October night, Lisa Kobayashi is forever grateful.
“I saw how fragile life is and it deepened my faith. I could feel the presence of God and angels watching over Jaycie. It changed my life forever.”
