A Life Forever Changed, a Strength Rediscovered: From Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial to Ms. Wheelchair Florida 2025

By the time Schuyler Arakawa, 32, graduated from Yale University, she had already packed more adventure into her young life than most people experience in decades. She’d jumped off cliffs, scuba dived, and explored the world.

In February 2016, she took on an international fellowship in Peru to help create opportunities for local women.

During a break between fellowship rotations, she and a friend took a trip to Colombia.

One day, Arakawa was rappelling down a waterfall and navigating whitewater rapids. While exploring a grotto, a boulder broke loose from the mountainside. It knocked her unconscious and pinned her beneath shallow water – fracturing her skull, spine, shoulder blade, right thigh, and left ankle.

“One of the neurosurgeons who had done more than 600 surgeries in his lifetime said he had never seen anything like this,” said her mom, Meridith Hankenson, who flew from their home in Tampa to Colombia to be by her side. “Schuyler had six injuries, and each alone were either fatal or resulted in a vegetative state.”

Doctors in Colombia managed to stabilize Arakawa. She was then airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital for specialized care. Once at Jackson Memorial, doctors had to address her traumatic brain injury and spinal trauma.

She was in a coma for two months in Jackson Memorial’s neurointensive care unit (neuro ICU), and underwent five surgeries

When she was strong enough to be transferred out of the neuro ICU and step-down unit, Arakawa faced a new reality: she had to relearn the most basic human functions. Moving her hands, standing, even sitting upright, everything required conscious effort and determination. Speaking also became a daily struggle.

“This is one of those cases you never forget,” said Gemayaret Alvarez-Gonzalez, MD, medical director of neuro rehabilitation at Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project To Cure Paralysis at UHealth/ Jackson. “She had zero motor control, limitations with weight bearing, and difficulty with communication due to her injuries being so severe.”

Arakawa spent four weeks in the hospital before she was discharged, which gave way to another month of rehabilitation therapy at Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.

“Everyone on the team, even as we progressed, they called us the ‘miracle family,’ just because of so many impossibilities,” Hankenson said.

Despite the severity of her injuries, the team at Jackson Memorial never approached Arakawa with limitations or lowered expectations.

“They never for a moment made me lose hope,” Hankenson said.

Despite her progress, when Arakawa left the hospital and went back home to Tampa, her recovery was far from over.

“It was challenging all around, physically, spiritually, financially. It was, really, really scary,” Hankenson said.

At home, Schuyler couldn’t sit upright on her own for more than a few seconds, requiring constant supervision and care.

“It was a lot, but the team at Jackson gave me a chance to have this chapter in my life, as it is, with Schuyler here,” Hankenson said.

Arakawa continued her physical and speech therapy, slowly hitting small milestones. Her friends from college rallied together for her, and set up a special needs trust to raise funds and help support her long-term recovery and care.

Nine years later, both mother and daughter have found their routine. Through it all, Arakawa has kept her spirit high – she can speak again and is working on walking, both with a walker and alone.

“I used to think I was putting my life on pause, and then I would get back to doing what I wanted,” she said. “But it’s become a longer wait time. I’m trying to refocus on what I want out of life in a wheelchair.”

She’s also taking advantage of new adventures, like an adaptive water park, summer camps, and a specialized rehab center in Orlando.

Arakawa expanded her advocacy this year by achieving a personal milestone: being crowned Miss Wheelchair Florida 2025. This summer, she made history as Florida’s first titleholder with a traumatic brain injury to compete at Ms. Wheelchair America 2026 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned two national honors—the Ms. Congeniality Award and the inaugural Derrick Manning Jr. Memorial Award for resilience, compassion, and joy.

“I’m happy to see that she’s progressing well and thriving. With head injuries, people recover when the right support and care is provided.” Dr. Alvarez-Gonzalez added.

Looking back, mother and daughter see their journey in three chapters.

“First there was the pain,” Hankenson said. “Then there was the pause; when we realized things might never go back to how they used to be. And now we’re in the stage of finding our purpose.”