Welcome home, Jaya

A group of people waving, cheering and holding up signs stood on the side of White Pole Road in Adair Friday night to welcome home Jaya Fever. Businesses and the Boys and Girls Club of Central and Southwest Iowa got in on the party, writing encouraging messages for her in paint on windows and chalk on sidewalks around town.

The Fevers’ drive down that street marked an important point in a long road of recovery for Jaya, who was in a car accident December 9 on her way to school. It resulted in her experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Slowly but surely, with great persistence and confidence, she’s relearned many life skills she once didn’t have to think to do. Most importantly, she’s home now for good.

Jaya learned to walk again, building up stamina and muscle memory through the use of a stationary bike and elliptical. Step by step, she got the hang of it again. Swallowing tests were needed to show doctors how well she could swallow. She had to relearn how to drink out of a straw.

“Her entire right side basically became immobile,” said Kyle, Jaya’s father. “She had the experience of her brain not recognizing her right side at all for awhile. A lot of relearning to walk had to do with her brain re-recognizing her right leg and her right arm.”

All recoveries of brain injuries are slow, Jaya’s parents said. At six months after an accident, patients are not usually as far along as Jaya is.

“For brain injury, we’ve heard her progress has been amazing,” said Jaya’s mother, Laura. “It may seem slow, but when you look even a month back at graduation, she’s walking, writing, it is pretty amazing.”

Medical professionals expect that over time, Jaya, 18, will make a full recovery. Early on in her injury, that was very uncertain, Kyle says.

“The doctors and everyone who has been involved have been really positive,” Jaya said, “and I appreciate that.”

Before her accident, Jaya was into the arts, making and listening to music and exercising. She knows she’ll be able to get back to doing art soon and to run.

Jaya was able to participate and walk across the stage at graduation at Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center High School in May.

During her recovery, Jaya was able to meet some of the first responders who helped her at the accident scene. Adair and Stuart Rescue and the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office responded to the crash that occurred just north of Adair.

In the fall of 2024, Jaya plans to attend Northwestern College in Orange City to study art education. In the meantime, she’ll be assisting her high school speech teacher with the speech season and musical this coming school year.

To have so many people welcoming her home for good meant a lot to Jaya and her family. The Fevers believe the prayers of many people have been extremely effective in Jaya’s recovery taking such a positive path, along with many other gestures of kindness and generosity. Kyle pastors Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Adair.

“I didn’t realize there would be that many people [welcoming me home],” Jaya said. “It’s also pretty exciting because there were people I didn’t even know supporting me.”