Survivor rebuilding broken body, life

Krystyn Renfro says finding driver in hit and run important to her

Doctors finished putting 33-year-old Krystyn Renfro back together Friday, removing a portion of her skull from her abdomen, where doctors had placed it to preserve the bone, and reattaching it to her head.

But despite being whole again, the survivor of the Jan. 31 hit-and-run accident at 28th Street and Lawrence Avenue said something is still missing.

“I would love to see some kind of accountability,” Renfro said from her hospital bed. “I realize that might not be likely, but as far as closure goes, seeing someone punished in some way for taking so much from me, it would feel really good.”

Renfro, a mother of three, has been confined to a hospital bed for the past six weeks, unable to even hold her infant son.

Her pelvis was shattered by the impact of the accident and doctors had to rebuild it. She said it will likely be 10 weeks before therapists even attempt to teach her how to walk again.

“I know that when I first came in, the surgeons didn’t give my parents more than six days, and now here I am,” Renfro said. “They call me a miracle.”

Renfro, who also suffered a brain injury, said she has no recollection of the accident, which happened around 1:15 a.m. that Sunday morning.

Witnesses have said she was hit by the car after bending over to pick up a cell phone she had dropped into the street.

But Renfro remembers being on the sidewalk fiddling with her phone, which had lost its signal. The intersection is less than a quarter of a mile from Renfro’s house and an area where she said she often went for walks.

“I was not in the street or in the yard. I was on the sidewalk,” she said. “And what I’m guessing is that a car turned the corner and jumped the curb, and they just hit me.”

Police are looking for a silver or light-colored 2004 to 2006 Mazda 3 with possible front-end damage in connection with the accident.

Witnesses described seeing a car matching that description fleeing the scene of the accident southbound on Lawrence Avenue.

Renfro said she had not yet talked to detectives. Lawrence Police Sgt. Bill Cory said officers were giving her time to recover.

Renfro said she’s still hopeful the driver will be caught.

“I’m assuming that someone had a moment of panic, but I think that it’s time for them to stand up and be accountable,” she said.

Renfro is expected to be released from the hospital by the end of the weekend. She plans on returning to her parents’ home in Chase with her 4-month-old son for a few weeks. Then she’ll return to Lawrence in time to start her outpatient physical therapy.

Her friends have planned a fundraiser on March 19 at the Jackpot Music Hall in downtown Lawrence to help pay for expenses associated with the accident.

Renfro said she’ll use any money raised to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who hit her.

“I think that someone was irresponsible, and I don’t think that anyone intended to hit me,” she said. “I think it was an accident, but their carelessness almost cost me my life and that, to me, is just terrible.”