LIHU‘E — A 13-year-old Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School student who was seriously injured in a one-vehicle crash on July 4 in Puhi is “fighting through it,” his mother said in a phone interview from the hospital Monday. Keoni Brown Alonso
LIHU‘E — A 13-year-old Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School student who was seriously injured in a one-vehicle crash on July 4 in Puhi is “fighting through it,” his mother said in a phone interview from the hospital Monday.
Keoni Brown Alonso opened his eyes Sunday for the time since he was medivaced early July 5 to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he remains in the intensive care unit.
“It’s still touch and go,” said his mother, Nui Brown.
“I’m just so happy that he’s still with me. It’s been really hard.”
Alonso has underwent some five surgeries so far to start fixing a broken pelvis, broken shoulder, two fractures in his back and a broken chin, she said. He has to have temporary pins in his legs and pelvis for a month before doctors even consider doing permanent pins.
“His face and body are healing well,” Brown said. “He has road rash from his right hip down his leg through his inner thigh down to his knee … and half of his face has no skin.”
Alonso lost a lot of blood from his injuries, she said, so the first step was a transfusion.
“There’s so much infection,” Brown said, noting that when he arrived at the hospital the tendons on the top of his feet were exposed.
“He just opened his eyes … and only last night did he realize he was in the hospital,” she said, adding that he remembers up until the accident.
Alonso, of Wailua Homesteads, was a rear-seat passenger in a Toyota pickup truck that lost control on Hulemalu Road near its intersection with Puhi Road. He and 14-year-old Maxine Tobin, who was riding in the front passenger seat, were first transported to Wilcox Memorial Hospital after being ejected from the truck when it overturned.
Four teens seated in the bed of the truck, operated by a 17-year-old male, were also ejected in the crash. One of the teens riding in the back received treatment at Wilcox, but Tobin and Alonso had to be airlifted to Queen’s.
Alonso was discussing the accident a little bit Monday with his brother until he started to get too upset, Brown said, noting the doctor’s orders to keep him as calm as possible so the tubes do not have to be reinserted.
“He said that all the kids in the back of the truck were on one side of the truck and they took a turn too sharp and before they knew it the kids just flew out of the truck,” Brown said.
“It’s a very dark back road at 11 p.m. All the kids speed through there. It’s a 25 mph zone. They say they weren’t speeding and were only going 35 … but it’s so dangerous. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Despite everything Alonso has been going through, Brown said he is still worried about everyone else who was involved in the crash.
Tobin, who was in the neuroscience ward, visited her friend Sunday, Brown said.
“Maxine came down to see him to relieve his stress,” she said.
Like a lot of teens, they are concerned about their appearance, Brown said.
“He’s a real well known kid … and his front teeth were all knocked out,” she said. “It’s one of the surgeries he will have to go through.”
Brown said she was very grateful for all the kind words and support that friends and family have offered.
“Bill Arakaki came to see us. He was a teacher when I was in school. It was really nice,” she said, adding that Chiefess has called to check on her son and to see if there was anything anyone could do. “It was so unexpected.”
“I’m just happy he’s alive,” Brown said. “I just look at him and I have to step out for a little while and let it out.”
To contact Brown, call 212-2076, e-mail honunui03@yahoo.com, or mail to 535 Kauhane St., Honolulu, HI 96813.
• Nathan Eagle, news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 2247) or neagle@kauaipubco.com
