RATHDRUM, Idaho – The Smith Family has a story that my have you asking, how much can one family take?
In any given year, they say they face more medical battles and challenges than most face in a lifetime. Still, they push forward and inspire along the way.
For Kristi Smith, life as she knew it changed on Christmas Day, 2005.
“I don’t actually remember the accident,” she said. “I had no idea what happened. I don’t remember anything until New Years Even when I woke up.”
That’s when the mother of three learned she was in a horrific car crash.
“I broke everything from my neck all the way down…everything below this knee was shattered and burned,” she said.
Her 10-year-old daughter, and sole passenger, was critically hurt too.
“She broke her back, punctured a lung,” said Ken Smith.
“It left her paralyzed from the waist down,” Kristi said.
And for Kristi, the damage done to her body that morning, has brought on new issues and infections, year after year. The infections often left her weak and unable to be the mom she wanted to be. She tried to find relief.
“I had five separate knee replacements,” she said.
But eventually both of her legs had be amputated.
“You’re helpless,” Ken said. “You can’t really help them do what they need to do.”
But there was always nothing husband Ken wouldn’t try. He says he’d do anything for his family and seeing them in pain was the worst moments of his life.
Their youngest son, Austin, was a constant source of comfort too.
“It’s quite painful some days,” Austin said.
Like his mom and sister, Austin knows what it’s like to face so many health battles.
“I was born with a condition call CMT (for short…) it’s a nerve disorder,” Austin said.
“It is painful … I have a hard time laying down comfortably…and resting,” he said.
After living with so much discomfort for years and years, Austin made the decision to have his leg amputated on August 1, 2023. He had a family by his side through all o it, loved ones who could truly relate.
“I looked around, I saw her, I saw my sister…that’s when I told myself, I’ll be alright,” Austin said.
Better than alright.
“A month after the amputation, I (started) my journey in college,” he said.
He is attending NIC, and hopes to one day be a University of Idaho Vandal where he aims to earn a degree in Engineering.
“It will be difficult, but what’s life without difficulty,” he said.
This family says, they wouldn’t know, but they hope they inspire others.
“I think we as people live with the cards we are dealt,” he said.
“You have to find peace somehow,” Kristi said. “Just try to find the joy…everyday.”
The family has overcome so much, and the expenses, even with insurance, can be overwhelming. Kristi is in need of new prosthetics. Austin requires a custom wheelchair after his amputation. For weeks, he’d been using a loaner from Shriners.
The family says while it’s overwhelming, they continue to focus on optimism.
