04 | The Tribune | Weekend
Thursday, June 3, 2021
interview
Kim Smith One year ago, this well-known local artist met with a horrific and life-changing accident. He tells Cara Hunt how he fought his way back and how grateful he is to all his friends and good Samaritans. IF THE past year has taught us anything it is that life can change in the blink of an eye. And while the majority of us have spent the past year hoping for a return to our pre-COVID-19 version of normal, local artist Kim Smith spent the past year struggling to survive after a tragic fall on the Montagu Foreshore left him temporally paralysed from the neck down and forced him to rely on the kindness of others to help with his basic needs. Kim is a member of the local art community and is well known for his fine pencil drawings, his teaching and for founding the Place for Art on Village Road. The Place for Art, like so many businesses, had taken already taken a financial hit due to the pandemic and had to close its doors in last spring. Shortly after, on June 2, 2020, disaster struck. “I have always walked along Montagu every morning,” Kim told Tribune Weekend. “Usually, my route is along Montagu Beach to the Yacht Club and back to my home, but because of COVID protocols, the beach was closed and so instead I would walk up and down the Montagu foreshore. It was my third time walking along the strip that day. I am a fast walker, usually about three miles an hour, and then I fell.” Kim fell hard on his face, smashing his glasses and damaging his spinal cord. “I managed to roll myself over a bit and realised that I was spitting out blood and pieces of teeth, and then I realised that I had no feeling below my neck and my only thought as I lay there was, ‘Oh God, I can’t be a quadriplegic’.” Fortunately, several people also walking along the strip and came to his rescue, calling for an ambulance.
‘I realised that I had no feeling below my neck and my only thought as I lay there was, “Oh God, I can’t be a quadriplegic”.’
EXACTLY one year since his life-changing accident on the Montagu Foreshore, artist Kim Smith has fought through his recovery with the help of friends, medical professionals and several good Samaritans. When Kim was finally able to meet one of his good Samaritans, Deshawn Moss, this week, she told him how she had walked home with his blood on her clothes, praying that he would not die. “I was alert the whole time and I remember joking with the paramedics that this was probable the fastest they were able to get down Shirley Street because there was no traffic due to lockdown,” said the artist. Kim remained in the hospital for the next 14 days, having suffered from a compression fracture of the spine between C3 and C6 vertebrae. He also needed eight stitches to his chin and still may require reconstructive dental surgery. Initially, it was unclear if he would regain the ability to move, but Kim was determined that he would make a full recovery. “When I asked the doctor if I would need KIM SMITH being spoon-fed by a private nurse dur- surgery, he said that we would begin with physiing his recovery. otherapy and if I reached a plateau then surgery
