By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Katie McKenzie and her stuffed
dachshund called "Schnapps."

---

Katie offers thanks
for her recovery

She made her first public appearance
today since being hit by a car Aug. 8

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

In a speech she wrote herself, 12-year-old Katie McKenzie thanked family, friends, doctors and supporters today for helping her wake up from a coma three weeks ago.

"I would just like to thank the people who prayed for me and sent me presents," said Katie in a hoarse, quiet voice. "This is what helped me get better. I thank God and his angels for letting me live."

She said she feels "good" but her injuries are still painful. In her first appearance since an Aug. 8 car accident, Katie sat in a wheelchair with her left leg up -- a leg that moved yesterday for the first time during therapy.

She held a stuffed dachshund dog she called "Schnapps." While Katie was in a coma, her father had promised to buy her a dog when she awoke.

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Katie and her mother Carole, right,
thank the public for their support.

---

Carole McKenzie was by her daughter's side at this morning's press conference at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children. Katie this week will be moved from there to the Shriners Hospital, where she will begin intensive rehabilitation.

Katie was critically injured Aug. 8 when she was struck by an out-of-control car on Bishop Street. She awoke from a coma Sept. 7 and spoke her first sentence a week later.

Some have described her recovery as "exceptional" and "miraculous" because she was able to talk in complete sentences so soon.

Katie lost her spleen and left kidney as a result of the accident. She also has a metal plate in her pelvis, a fractured skull and two broken legs.

Attorney Jerry I. Wilson, who drove the car that struck Katie, has not been arrested or charged as police await lab results in their negligent injury investigation.