June

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 ‘I realised local art community and is that I had no well known for his fine pencil feeling below drawings, his teaching and my neck for founding the Place for Art on and my only Village Road. The Place thought as I for Art, like so many busi- lay there was, nesses, had taken already “Oh God, I taken a financial hit due to can’t be a the pandemic and had to close quadriplegic”.’ its doors in last spring. Shortly after, on June 2, 2020, disaster struck. When Kim was finally able to meet one of his

“I have always walked along Montagu every good Samaritans, Deshawn Moss, this week, she morning,” Kim told Tribune Weekend. told him how she had walked home with his blood

“Usually, my route is along Montagu Beach to on her clothes, praying that he would not die. the Yacht Club and back to my home, but because “I was alert the whole time and I remember of COVID protocols, the beach was closed and so joking with the paramedics that this was probinstead I would walk up and down the Montagu able the fastest they were able to get down Shirley foreshore. It was my third time walking along the Street because there was no traffic due to lockstrip that day. I am a fast walker, usually about down,” said the artist. three miles an hour, and then I fell.” Kim remained in the hospital for the next 14

Kim fell hard on his face, smashing his glasses days, having suffered from a compression fracture and damaging his spinal cord. of the spine between C3 and C6 vertebrae. He

“I managed to roll myself over a bit and realised also needed eight stitches to his chin and still may that I was spitting out blood and pieces of teeth, require reconstructive dental surgery. and then I realised that I had no feeling below my Initially, it was unclear if he would regain the neck and my only thought as I lay there was, ‘Oh ability to move, but Kim was determined that he God, I can’t be a quadriplegic’.” would make a full recovery.

Fortunately, several people also walking along “When I asked the doctor if I would need the strip and came to his rescue, calling for an surgery, he said that we would begin with physiambulance. otherapy and if I reached a plateau then surgery

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.