Onyxia Delinois woke up early every Saturday morning to run. Often, her husband Roosevelt Delinois said, he would get up with her and walk her to her car. Last Saturday, he slept in.
“I didn’t get up. I didn’t get up. I didn’t get up. I didn’t feel worried about her,” Delinois told reporters at a news conference Wednesday morning at Memorial Regional Hospital, where his wife is now in a coma. “Once I got the call, I touched over to her side of the bed and she wasn’t there. I was like, ‘no, she’s right there.’ And she wasn’t there.”
The sun was just coming up about 7 a.m. when Onyxia Delinois was hit by a car while running in a bike lane in the 18300 block of Miramar Parkway, police say. The force of the collision was so great that first responders found her, unconscious, on the shoulder, over 30 feet from where they think the collision occurred, her shoe flung into a wooded area nearby. The driver had continued east and hasn’t been found.
“They just left her there on the ground,” Roosevelt Delinois said.
Four days later, police still have no pictures of the car or ideas of where the driver might be. The area where Delinois was jogging is heavily wooded with no cameras, businesses or homes in the immediate surroundings. Few people were out that early on a weekend, though there was enough light for the driver to see Delinois, who was not wearing reflective clothing, according to Traffic Homicide Detective Jose Rosales.
About 10 minutes had elapsed before Delinois was found. Though she was running with her usual group, she often ran ahead of the pack because she was so fast, according to Miramar Police spokesperson Tania Ordaz, while other runners ֱ out or go on their own routes. But two women from the group heard “what sounded like someone in need of help” and found Delinois on the ground, calling 911.
Miramar Fire Rescue took Delinois to Memorial General Hospital as a Level 1 trauma alert, reserved for the most critically injured patients, according to Dr. Andrew Rosenthal, the chief of trauma services at the hospital. About an hour later, she had emergency brain surgery, then another operation later that night to try to reduce the swelling in her brain. She has remained in a coma since the crash, and is on life support and a ventilator.
Brain injuries are hard to predict, Rosenthal said at the news conference, and so is Delinois’ recovery.
“It’s very difficult for us to put a crystal ball to her prognosis,” he said. “And it’s really just too early on for us to make a prediction about how she’s going to do overall. We see signs of improvement; we see signs that are concerning.”
Roosevelt Delinois asked that the news conference be held at the hospital so he did not have to leave his wife’s side for more than a few minutes. He described her Tuesday as “amazing” and “selfless,” “one of those people who was just good at everything.”
“She helped me tremendously in my life,” Delinois added, before breaking into sobs.
He took only one question before asking to leave so he could return to his wife.
Had the driver stopped and called 911 or given aid, it’s possible Delinois would be in better condition. Rosenthal said there’s a “golden hour” of time where an early intervention makes a huge difference, and every minute counts.
Police are looking for a car that might have damage to its right front or side. They are surveying the area and putting out flyers and pictures on social media.
“We need a vehicle,” Rosales said. “So if anybody sees a vehicle that has this kind of damage, that you even suspect may be this vehicle or might be related to this case, please call us. We will go out there and we will investigate and we will determine if the vehicle’s involved. And if the driver is out there listening right now, please turn yourself in.”
