The Difference a Day Makes

Above: Front view of the damage to my eye socket, jaw & cheek bone.

Below: Results after multiple surgeries to repair the trauma. Thank you to all my doctors, surgeons & staff at HCMC in Mpls, MN.
My name is Kim D. Smith. Prior to this accident, I had a proud and productive career as a High School Math teacher for the past 22 years. One day I was at work enjoying everything about my job, the next day my whole life was turned up side down. What the difference a day makes!!

On Friday, April 17, 2015 sometime between midnight Thursday and before my alarm would sound on Friday, I was startled from my sleep by the sound of gunfire.  My first thought was that I had to get away from the windows.  The only place that I could think of for safety and without windows, was my bathroom.   I stumbled to the bathroom in the dark and called for my dog to join me. My dog had been barking frantically and running through the house, but he suddenly stop barking and never came to me which caused me to become more frantic. Then, everything went dark.

The next thing I recall was hearing the voice of my, then, 20 year old son, asking me, "Mom what happened?"  I replied, "I slipped and fell and hit my head." I thought it was still Friday morning, but later found out that it was actually Saturday morning  over 24 hours later.  I had been unconscious on the bathroom floor for approximately 28 to 30 hours!!My son attends college 2 hours away from my home and had no plans to come home that weekend, but my mother who lives out of state, had tried to reach me by phone all day on Friday and when she couldn't, she became concerned. It was our routine to talk every morning before I went to work.  I learned later that she frantically called my son and asked him to come home to check on me. 

 When he arrived, he found me in the bathroom face down against the porcelain tub. He helped me up from the bathroom floor, and noticed there were two puddles of blood. He assumed from my positioning that I may have hit my head against the tub causing me to have either 1) bit my tongue or have a terrible nosebleed.   He asked me what I needed. I replied water,  because I felt like I had a mouth full of cotton balls.  My head was throbbing and I really just wanted relief from the pounding in my head.   I walked to the bedroom to lay down and my son brought me water. I told him I wanted to sleep for about two hours, because I felt like I had not had any sleep.   I had no idea what my son could see, all I knew was I wanted to go to sleep. My son tried to encourage me to go to the hospital but I argued with him. I just wanted to sleep. So my son called his father to come to our house and encourage me to go to the hospital.  I insisted I did not want or need to go to the hospital, I simply needed rest. My son's father called an ambulance to take me to the hospital anyway. 
Above: Right side view of damage to my skull (causing a traumatic brain injury), my eye socket, my cheek bone & jaw.

 At the hospital, we learned I had been shot in the head from the left side, sustained multiple facial fractures and a Traumatic Brain Injury.    I had no idea that I had been shot until the emergency room nurse came into the room and asked me if I knew who had shot me.   I was terrified,  to find out that I had been shot in my own home. 

Since that terrible night, I have undergone multiple surgeries. My right cheek bone was shattered and had to be replace with a titanium plate.  I had jaw surgery. My jawbone had to be shaved to increase my range of motion just so I could open my mouth to eat solid food & take medications. I had to have right eye surgery to open the eye that had been closed by the trauma. I have a plate in my skull to reshape my eye socket. I had another surgery to retreive my eye from it's sunken position and it now sits on a wedge implant in my skull, and another where fatty tissue was harvested from another part of my body to fill in the concave area of my skull.  I've had to have multiple procedures  to make custom fit contact lenses to protect my eyes and there are more surgeries to to come. 

I have not been able to work for a year and six months and for the last ten months I've had zero income. I've had to use all of my savings to stay afloat. I've had to swallow my pride and ask for help in ways I never imagined.  That brings me to Gofundme.com

I have been in my home for 26 years. I've worked so hard to get to this point that I would hate to lose it all now. I am asking for help with living expenses to be able to keep my home and the essentials, water, gas and electricity.  I am behind on everything and the medical bills are also mounting.  The money will be used to catch up on mortgage and utilities payments as well as pay off credit cards I've been living off of. 

I believe I will be able to work again in the future, but there are still some physical hurdles to get over.  This is why I would be so grateful for any financial help that I can get at this point in time, as I have had to swallow my pride and admit that I'm not able to do this on my own. 

I sincerely thank all who find it in their hearts to give to my cause.  God Bless You.

Special thanks to my first GoFundMe contributors, Tamala & Kevin Lacy and Ruth Bannerman. Tamala, thank you so much for tireless efforts & unselfish support to help me put this together. You've reminded me that sometimes in our lives, there comes a time when we have to swallow our pride to get the help we really need.