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Alyshia eager to Now that she's home, Alyshia Shimizu is looking forward to first grade and riding her bicycle again.
start first grade
After six weeks of skin grafts
at a Shriner's Hospital for her
flesh-eating disease, she just
wants to ride her bikeBy Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin"I gave her training wheels right before her accident, and she used them only one day," said future neighbor Shilene Matautia. "She said she's only got two wheels now."
Matautia's five children were supposed to spend the summer playing with Alyshia and her four siblings. The Matautias and 13 other families have built close friendships with the Shimizus as they have been building homes together in Tenney Village in Ewa.
But those plans were interrupted when Alyshia cut her knee in a fall. The cut became infected and Alyshia developed a flesh-eating disease.
For the last six weeks, Alyshia has been undergoing skin grafts to replace a third of the skin on her legs and body at the Shriner's Hospital in Sacramento, Calif.Yesterday, Alyshia flashed a dimpled smile as dozens of teary-eyed relatives and friends greeted her and her mother, Annette, at the airport with balloons, cheers and leis.
"I'm so happy to have both of them back home," said Alyshia's father, Tony Shimizu.
It was quite a different scene when Alyshia and her mother left Hawaii six weeks ago in a private jet. At that time, Alyshia was in a drug-induced coma to reduce her pain and suffering and her prognosis was uncertain.
"I got my hero right here," Shimizu, a Honolulu police officer, said yesterday with his hand on his daughter's head.
Shimizu stayed in Hawaii for most of the six weeks taking care of Alyshia's four siblings.
When he had his chance to welcome his sister, younger brother Austin, 3, kissed Alyshia and gave her a quarter.
Alyshia slept for most of the five-hour plane ride home, but did eat some ice cream, Annette Shimizu said. She had been suffering from the flu earlier in the morning but was feeling better when she left the hospital.
"She looks like her brothers now," said Tony Shimizu, referring to her closely cropped hair, which had to be shaved so doctors could remove skin from her scalp to be grafted.
"They took skin from everywhere else except her face and arms," he said.
"This is just the beginning," said Annette Shimizu, adding that Alyshia will have to receive more skin grafts as she grows.
Alyshia will continue to receive treatment that will be taken care of by the Shriners of Honolulu. The Shriners arranged and paid for Alyshia and her mother's flight home yesterday and planned a Keiki Festival today with pony rides and a petting zoo that Alyshia was to attend.
Besides riding her bike, Alyshia, who will turn six next month, also is looking forward to starting school.
"I'm not going to kindergarten because I'm going to first grade," Alyshia told her mom.
Alyshia Shimizu Web site