Manoa girl injured by tree out of coma

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

A 12-year-old girl who was injured when a tree fell through her house in Manoa is out of a coma and has even taken a few shaky steps with a walker, a lawyer representing her family said.

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"They don't know whether she'll regain her speech, but they are hopeful," Fried said. Fried said her family was not available to comment.

He said her emergence from the coma came gradually, but over the weekend her doctors declared her out of the coma, and changes in her condition have come rapidly.

"Who knows what will happen tomorrow?"

Julia was injured when a 100-foot Norfolk pine crashed through the roof of her parents' home on Beckwith Street as the family slept shortly before 5 a.m. March 15.

She was in the intensive-care unit at The Queen's Medical Center until March 31, when she was moved into a regular room at Queen's.

Fried had said at the time that she had been clutching a pillow and seemed to be making voluntary leg movements.

Julia is scheduled to begin working with a physiatrist — a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation — and that doctor will determine whether she needs speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy or — most likely, Fried said — a combination of therapies.

Fried said a plastic surgeon also will see her next week concerning reconstructive surgery.

Although she has always been right-handed, her left side is now stronger than her right side, Fried said. Although her right hand is too weak to move, she has been able to use her left hand to manipulate a marker, drawing crude circles on paper.

After Julia was injured, the city launched an assessment of trees in Manoa to determine whether any others might pose a safety risk, and seven termite-eaten trees on Beckwith Street were cut down as a result.

Fried said experts are continuing to examine the tree that fell onto her house.

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com