82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 20,1986
Maiylond Youth Struggles For Life Following Throe V/heeler Accident
Editor’s Note: Farm accidents
are all too common, with
agriculture ranking as the second
most hazardous occupation in the
United States. Many of those in
jured are children like Robbie
Smith, who is featured in the
following story. His tragedy is a
reminder that preventive safety
measures are essential. During
Farm Safety Week, Sept. 21 to 27,
make your children and family
aware of how important safety is.
BY SHARON SCHUSTER
Maryland Correspondent
March 9 “My beautiful, healthy
son wont for a ride a abort tbno lator
ho was on his way to shook trauma in a
chopper..
So begins Mary Ellen Smith’s
account of her son Robbie’s
struggle to stay alive. “I had
started keeping a log,” said Smith,
“just to get my feelings out. Then I
thought Robbie might want to read
it some day.”
The spiral bound handwritten
account of the Smiths’ ordeal
refers to the three wheeler ac
cident that left their 14-year-old
son in a coma that has lasted six
months. It seems like 60 years,”
she said. It was “the worst
nightmare that I or my family has
ever been through,” wrote Mrs.
Smith. “The first week is almost a
blur of feelings, facts, fears, hopes,
and lots of prayers.”
As a passenger on a three
wheeled cycle, Robbie Smith,
along with the driver of the
“tryke” was involved in an ac
cident that left Smith’s 16-year-old
friend with a concussion (he was
treated and released), and ren
dered Smith totally incapacitated
and unconscious from the moment
of impact. Smith’s cousin who
observed the tragedy ran for help.
A helicopter arrived soon after the
2 p.m. accident and transported
the unconscious and profusely
bleeding boy to Baltimore’s Shock-
Trauma Center.
Chuck Poop was one of three auctioneers who donated time to conduct the Robbie
Smith Benefit Auction. A standing room only crowd filled the pavilion and town coun
cilman Emory Wolfe noted: “When the chips are down, the town is there."
Many items, including these cattle donated by a friend of the family, were auctioned
for Robbie’s benefit sale.
“The first week we weren’t sure
Robbie would live through each
day,” continues Mrs. Smith’s
journal. “We never imagined in
our wildest imaginations that it
could last this long,” she said of
her son’s unconsciousness.
Smith said that most of her son’s
injury is to the brain stem. She
explained that there are eight
stages of consciousness that a
person can experience. From the
signs that she and her family and
doctors have observed, Smith said
she would classify Robbie as
between stages 2 and 3 (1 being the
lowest).
“Sometimes he’ll track with his
eyes,” she explained. When asked
questions, he can blink once for
“yes” and twice for “no.” “I think
he’s getting bored with the whole
thing,” she added.
March 21 “By now I felt as though
Robbie was God's child and It was up to
God and the doctors to Me ears of Mm
aH I could do Is pray."
Searching out Robbie’s fresh
man picture from Francis Scott
Key High School, Smith said her
son was healthy and active. His
father, Robert added that his son
helped with the milking on their
dairy farm near New Windsor, and
was active in the Key Clovers 4-H
Club.
“He was my tractor driver, said
Smith. “That’s the biggest part
that I miss,” he added with a
smile. Now Robbie rides in a side
cart on the tractor. “Sometimes I
ride with him,” said Mary Ellen
Smith. “But there’s no seat for
Mom.”
At the time of the accident,
Robbie was planning for the
Carroll County, Maryland Fair.
His steer waited in the bam for his
return, but that was not to happen
in time. Mike Arbaugh, a friend of
Robbie, continued to groom the
animal during Robbie’s absence.
Robbie was able to attend the
fair, strapped in a wheelchair. His
parents hoped that it would be just
the thing to stimulate his mind. But
even the excitement of winning the
grand champion banner wasn’t
enough to wake him from his
strange sleep.
The school photo revealed a
handsome, bright-eyed youngster.
In contrast, a photograph taken
during his stay at the Kennedy
Institute in Baltimore, Md., shows
a frail child strapped in a
wheelchair. The once strong legs
that ran track at Francis Scott Key
High School are now rigid and
drawn from lying in his comatose
state for more than six months.
April 10 “Robbie finally smiled,"
continues Smith’s diary.
Robert and Mary Ellen Smith
and their daughters Catherine and
Denise altered their daily routines
to accommodate visiting hours,
consultations, operations, and
therapy schedules.
“I got up earlier in the mor
ning,” said Robert Smith. While
his son was hospitalized, he began
the morning milking at 3:15.
“There for a while I was only part
time farming,” he said.
He credits Mike Arbaugh for
making the transition as smooth as
possible. “He has been super,”
said Smith. “He just took over.”
Mrs. Smith said they think of
Arbaugh “as one of our own.”
Faced with mounting medical
expenses, the Smiths say in
surance will most likely run out
before their ordeal is over. Once
Robbie has regained con
sciousness, he will need extensive
therapy.
Flipping through the file of
medical papers she has compiled,
Mrs. Smith plucked out the 30-day
Shock-Trauma bill that amounted
to more than $56,000, and was 67
pages long. “It’s inevitable,” said
Smith of incoming bills. “We know
they’re coming, and it won’t stop
now that he is home.”
Jokingly they said they call him
“our million dollar baby.” Wiping
a tear from her eye, Mrs. Smith
Robbie once helped his father on the family's dairy farm but
since the three-wheeler accident, he has been confined to a
wheelchair. Here, his mother, Mary Ellen Smith, spends a
quiet moment with her disabled son. Inset is a picture of
Robbie before the accident.
added, “That’s o.k.
takes.”
whatever it
As soon as word of the tragedy
hit the community, friends and
organizations rallied around the
Smith family to make meals, help
with farm work and raise funds (or
the costs incurred during their
nightmarish ordeal. On July 19,
several organizations staged an
auction to benefit the “Robbie
Smith Fund.” More than 800 people
attended the fundraiser and over
$15,000 was raised that hot, July
day at the New Windsor Carnival
grounds. Items auctioned ranged
from furniture to livestock, and,
with three auctioneers, it lasted
over eight hours.
The bills are still mounting.
Robbie requires round the clock
care by hired nurses. A nurse even
accompanies him on the school bus
and at the Carroll County Ex
ceptional Center where he has just
completed the first weeks of
school.
He is at the specially equipped
facility from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. “I
think he sleeps most of the time,”
said his mother. “It will be £ood
for him to be around other kids,”
she added.
The Smiths work continually at
trying to provide Robbie with
physical and emotional
stimulation in the hope that they
will find the key to unlocking his
mind. “We tickle him, pinch his
ears, and talk to him constantly.”
Mrs. Smith said they are now
looking for a van that is equipped
or can be equipped with a
wheelchair lift. Taking him in the
car is “a real chore” that requires
several people to load and strap
him safely in the car. “If I had a
van, I could take him myself,”
explained Smith.
Smith said that although her
Wtnesfead
elites
son’s mind is at a standstill, he has
grown three inches since the
March accident. “Now he weighs
more than I do. He’s a little but
terball,” she chuckled.
“The people who have called and
the churches that have him on
their prayer lists;” said Mrs.
Smith, “the outpouring of love and
concern, is just amazing to me.”
The Smiths have held an annual
fundraising bam dance on their
farm for several years to benefit
the fire company and St. Paul’s
United Methodist Church. “We had
one scheduled,” said Robert
Smith, “but we had to cancel.” The
Smiths aren’t sure just which
organizations or individuals are
now conducting fundraisers for
them, but they said “We ap
preciate it.”
May 30 “Hulk Hogan Mt hit
autograph on RobNo’t hullotiH board.”
With Farm Safety week just
beginning, Mary Ellen Smith said,
“It makes you stop and shake your
head,” referring to the numbers of
farm children who continue to ride
three wheelers. She said she would
like to see them outlawed, and
recommended that riders wear
helmets and not carry passengers.
“They look safe, but they’re not,”
she warned. “They are killers.
Robbie’s life is changed forever
because of one ride.”
June 26 “Wo M things an
baginning to happan again."
Describing their ordeal as a
“roller coaster full of ups and
downs,” Mrs. Smith said, “If tears
and prayers will get this child
through this, he’s going to be fine.
And victory will be all the sweeter
because he has had it so rough.”
She continued, “I think he’s going
to come through it. God has pulled
him through so much. He’s got big
plans for Robbie.”