Britt Jones
The parents of a student who has had parts of both her legs removed after a horror accident in the sea have given a major update into their daughter's condition.
Hannah Smith, a 22-year-old arts graduate who is passionate about athletics, was on board a cruise with her best friend earlier this month when disaster struck.
The pair, who had only been on the trip for one day, were on a day excursion with other cruise passengers during a stop in the Bahamas.
It was there when Hannah fell from the side of a pontoon boat as it attempted to dock at Nassau, and was dragged under the ferry’s propellers.
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The Memphis native suffered horrific injuries, including partially severed legs, and was rushed to the local hospital and later airlifted back home to the US to undergo serious surgeries.
The Royal Bahamian Police confirmed that her injuries were severe, saying in a statement: "The victim is alleged to have entered the water from a vessel she was a passenger on while it was attempting to dock. She sustained serious injuries to her lower body, caused by the vessel’s propeller."
Surgeons at a Miami hospital carried out eight operations as they fought to save her life after the terrible accident.
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According to her father, Marvin, she is currently in intensive care but is awake in between her surgeries.
He also revealed that she is still in intensive care and is awake between surgeries.
He told The Mirror: “She’s been so heavily medicated, she’s mentioned things but it’s like she’s having hallucinations.”
And according to mom Tracy: “With the sedations, medications, the trauma, everything, there were also hallucinations, which they tell us is part of coming off sedation.
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“So, we have not asked her anything related to [the accident]. We need her focusing on her healing and not trying to remember or trying to relive it.”
The parents, who have set up a GoFundMe to help with the medical costs of the surgeries, have also revealed that Hannah is unaware of the true extent of her injuries, and that she is not lucid at this time.
Tracy said her daughter was ‘just starting her life and she’s got all these plans’ after graduating, adding: “One of the things that she said, with all the things that have happened to her, and it just touched us, it was so prophetic, she said: ‘Mommy, we’re all spirits walking around here and God just loans us a body’.
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“Now we’ve got to stay strong for her, so we just try to follow her lead and help her in any way we can, whether that’s emotionally, spiritually, physically helping her, whatever it is.”
Marvin described his daughter as a ‘scholar, leader and community advocate’, explaining that she ‘graduated at the top of her class with Summa Cum Laude, from Miles College, earning respect and admiration from her peers, professors and sorority sisters’.
After ‘uplifting others’, now Hannah is ‘in need of the community’s support’.
Sadly, this isn’t the family’s first traumatic event involving a child as nine years ago, Hannah’s brother was involved in a motorbike crash which left him quadriplegic.
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Joseph, who is now 30, was 21 when the accident happened, and learning of the news of his sister devastated him.
"It was hard for him to hear. When he heard about it, it really bothered him," Tracy added to the Mirror. "Because every big brother wants to protect his sister."
The family are praying for her safe recovery, and donations are being accepted to help them through the financial burden of hospital bills.