I Survived the Most Violent Attempted Murder Imaginable. That Was the Easy Part. [story]

Someone tried to kill me on February 1, 2009. I was a few days away from enlisting in the Army National Guard and I wanted to find out if I was ready for boot camp, so I decided to hike up a steep mountain on Oahu called Koko Crater. When I reached the summit, I was attacked by an individual who had a psychotic break. He thought Japanese men wearing blue were government agents and were going to kill him(I’m half Japanese/half Scandinavian). He stabbed me 18 times before I even had a chance to catch my breath. It was a cheap and cowardly attack. In my final moment of consciousness, I caused him as much pain as I could, and it saved my life. He got mad and pushed me off a cliff. I fell 100 feet. I broke my neck, fractured my skull, both my lungs collapsed, my left lung was punctured, my liver and diaphragm were stabbed, an artery in my left temple was severed. My jugular vein was lacerated. Epidural hematoma. Concussion. Broken right ankle. I lost five pints of blood. I was rescued by Good Samaritans and firefighters, who found me a few feet from the edge of a 500-foot cliff. The only reason I didn’t fall to a certain death is because I was pinned under a rusty car frame. I was in the hospital for one month and had seven surgeries. I was fully awake for two of them. I got double pneumonia twice. I coughed up tiny rocks and dirt out of a hole in my trachea for two weeks.

I was rear-ended twice while recovering from a broken neck. My mom gave up her golden years to raise me a second time. We had to move seven times in six years. She recycled bottles and cans so she wouldn’t lose her home.

My attacker was acquitted due to temporary insanity. He was allowed to attend college across the street from the mental hospital UNESCORTED, just three years after he tried to savagely murder two people simply because we had Japanese ancestry. My attacker took away my right to serve in the U.S. military. No one warned us about his release; my mom had to find out on the news. She hasn’t been the same person since she saw his face on TV in 2012. I’ve been fighting for victim’s rights ever since I was ignored by the justice system. He was released in 2018 and is free to do as he pleases. I learned to knit after I had neck surgery in 2010. I tracked down the doctors and nurses who kept me alive in 2009 and I knit potholders and coasters to thank them. I knit and sold beanies to pay my bills. I knit to this day, and it’s the reason I’m not homeless.

In 2021, I was diagnosed with lipodystrophy, a rare metabolic disorder that causes complete and permanent fat loss. The loss of cushioning means sitting down and lying on my back are extremely painful. Most of my life is spent lying on my stomach. Lipodystrophy causes organ failure due to fat infiltration. Life with lipodystrophy is usually short and extremely painful. The pain of life without sufficient cushioning on my rear and my joints is worse than the pain of getting stabbed and pushed off a cliff. Those of you who battle chronic pain and illness have my utmost respect.

What could possibly be motivating about my brutal and bizarre story?

Because I’m still here. Because he had every advantage, yet he failed to kill me. Because I’ve used my pain to help others.

He stabbed me in the head six times. That means he tried to stab my brain six times. And what did I do with that brain? I went back to school and I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and $90,000 in scholarships and grants. I became a published author. I wrote and spoke about my survival across the country. I bared my soul in front of Hawaii’s House and Senate in order to give victims of violent crimes the same rights as their attackers. I gifted or sold thousands of beanies, scarves, potholders, and coasters. I became a better golfer AFTER my attack. I became a better person AFTER my attack. I became tough as nails, but I did not become hard. I came to my senses and in 2024, I married the gorgeous and brilliant woman who saved my life, a woman who has endured and overcome just as much as I have.

I did all these things living with PTSD, OCD, anxiety, depression, intractable chronic pain, and a deadly metabolic disease that is causing me to waste away in my prime.

If I can do these things with a broken body and a wounded mind, imagine what YOU can do.

Thank you for reading my story.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Iwamoto