A drunken driver took Nakiza Nyankundwa’s leg, not her will

CEDAR RAPIDS — Nakiza Nyankundwa, learning to walk again after she was hit by a drunken driver and lost her right leg, plans to cross the stage later this month to accept her high school diploma.

Nyankundwa, 21, is one of about 292 students graduating from Jefferson High School at 7 p.m. May 26 at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

In December 2020, Nyankundwa and her brother were walking near their home on the southwest quadrant of Cedar Rapids when they were struck by a drunken driver. While both Nyankundwa and her brother survived, Nyankundwa’s life was changed forever.

“I didn’t know if I would survive, but I survived,” she said.

Nyankundwa sustained life-threatening injuries in the crash and was taken to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. She was in a coma for two weeks, and woke up in so much pain that she broke her arm thrashing in bed. She then was placed in a medically induced coma for an additional four months to help her recover.

Her father was by her side the entire time, often sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the intensive care unit, said Sarah Pieper Becker, an English Language Learner teacher at Jefferson High.

In addition to losing her leg, Nyankundwa also lost four teeth, which she still is working with Medicaid insurance to have fixed. She is in physical therapy at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids learning to walk with a prosthetic leg.

Nyankundwa, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, grew up in a refugee camp in Burundi. She moved to the United States when she was 16 with her father, brother and three sisters.

"She was always smiling, always talking. I almost couldn’t get her to stop talking in class,” said Nikki Herman, a social studies and English Language Learner teacher at Jefferson High. “After the accident — completely different kid. It was very hard for me to see that,” Herman said with tears in her eyes.

Nyankundwa was supposed to graduate high school in May 2021 and debated whether to go back to school after the crash. Ultimately, she decided to return to Jefferson in fall 2021 on a modified school schedule because of the medication she was on at the time.

“I thought, ‘I have to do it. If I don’t, I ruin myself,’” she said on graduating high school.

She took two classes a day, arriving late and leaving early. “That was all she could endure,” Herman said.

It wasn’t until more than a year after the crash that her teachers “could tell she was starting to be Nakiza again,” Herman said.

“I’m super proud,” Herman said. “Nobody should ever have to be put in this situation. Here’s a kid who had to leave her family in Africa, learn a new language — those are obstacles already. And then you get one more blow.”

Nyankundwa is planning to attend Kirkwood Community College to study nursing — a career she was interested in before the crash. Now, she wants to help other kids who are recovering in the hospital.

“I’m thankful I’m alive,” Nyankundwa said. “I would like to encourage other kids that have disabilities to just be themselves and not worry about what other people think or say about them.

“I’m thankful for God,” she said. “Even when I feel really sad, I pray and I feel good again.”

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