Shay Smith

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Shay is a much loved,  17 year old son of Kristin Smith and Terry Smith.   He is the 2nd of 4 kids and is a senior at Legend High School. Shay is creative, inventive, intelligent and tender-hearted. He played soccer at Legend until this year, when he said he wanted to focus more on his academics to get ready for college next year. He was taking tough classes, such as AP Calculus and Physics. 


Shay worked hard and saved up enough money to buy his first car on Monday, Sept 5th. Two days later on Wednesday he passed his driving test and got his driver's license. 


Later that Wednesday evening, Shay was leaving a meeting at Legend High School. He pulled out of the parking lot and stopped at a red light on Hilltop Rd. Another driver did not stop and slammed into the back of Shay's car driving around 55mph.  Shay was unconscious briefly after the accident and suffered a TBI ( traumatic brain injury) from bleeding and trauma to his brain.  He is hospitalized at Parker Adventist Hospital. He was in the ICU for two days, but is now in a regular room on the Neuro floor.   The neurosurgeon says he is expected to make a good recovery, but that will take 3-18 months and some tough therapy and a lot of patience and prayers. 



Right now Shay spends most of the time sleeping. The doctors say he needs to stay in a "low stimulation" environment. This means few visitors and only visit for 5-10 minutes. If he's sleeping, please let him sleep and come back again later. You can say hi, but please DON'T ask him multiple questions as this floods his brain with too much to process. He may or may not know who you are.  No phones or televisions can be on around him. Shay will be out of school for at least a month. 


He may transfer to an Acute Rehab hospital at the beginning of next week where they will provide further therapy to help him recover well. 


Shay's family would appreciate your prayers. Thank you for supporting and caring for him.