On Dec. 16, 2018, Sami Bayless did something she’s done thousands of times before, but feared she’d never do again — she rode her horse, Dunny.
Horses were her life before the accident.
“Yeah, if I wasn’t at school or work, there was a good chance I was out there with my horses. I really missed it,” Bayless, 18, said in an interview at the Jasper County Courthouse at a reception for her grandmother, Marilyn Baugh, who is retiring as Jasper County Clerk.
“It was amazing, I never thought I’d get to do that again,” Bayless said. “I felt very blessed to be able to do that again because it was something I thought was taken away from me forever. I thought it was over, I thought I was just done with horses.”
Life-changing day
Bayless had gotten up early that fateful spring Wednesday, June 6, 2018, to take care of her horses before leaving for work at White Oak Candle company in Carthage.
Sami had left earlier, but her mother, Charity had called her and asked if she’d come back and trade vehicles for the day.
Sami returned and left in her mother’s car.
At 8:20 a.m., Charity Bayless received the first alarming text from Sami’s boss, Niki Matthews.
“I got a text from her boss asking me if Sam was coming to work today,” Charity Bayless said. “I said yeah, she should be there, she left a while ago. Her boss said she’s not answering my texts. So, I have an app on my phone where I can track the kids and it said he left the pasture at 7:21 and at 7:48 my car came to a stop. I was able to tell Niki exactly where Sami was. Niki remained on the phone with me and drove, it was just a couple miles from the candle shop and let me know kind of what was going on.”
Sami Bayless had been involved in a two-car, head-on collision on Highway 96, 10 miles west of Miller, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
She had suffered life-threatening injuries and was transported to a hospital in Springfield by helicopter.
On the way to the hospital, the helicopter crew used Sami’s thumb to unlock her phone and call Charity, who was riding with her husband to Springfield.
“That was a feeling I’ll never forget, when my phone lit up with her picture and it said Sami,” Charity Bayless said. “I just answered it, Sami, Sami, it’s mama, are you ok?”
The helicopter crew told Charity that Sami was stabilizing, then they called a second time.
“They said we want to let you know she’s starting to wake up and she’s just yelling no needles, no needles,” Charity said. “That was the best thing they could have told me because I knew at that point I had her mentally, because she’s a needle-phobic and can’t stand needles. I told the crew you agree with her, no needles, but you do whatever you have to do. I had to give praises to God, I knew I still had her there at that point.”
A long road
It was the start of a long road to recovery, one that the family has documented on a Facebook page called Sami Strong.
The page is filled with videos pictures, descriptions from Charity Bayless and updates on the painful road Sami has had to travel to recovery.
After a little more than a week in Springfield, Sami Bayless was sent to Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, a hospital famous for helping people rehabilitate from spinal cord injuries.
Sami had suffered multiple broken bones in her legs and spine, and it was unclear at that time how much mobility she would ever get back.
Complications
In Colorado, the family expected to start the rehabilitation process, but infections and other complications took hold, and Sami had to be transferred to Swedish Medical Center next door to Craig Hospital for more treatment.
She went through 14 surgeries, on top of two in Missouri, to restore blood flow to muscles and bones in her leg.
At one point, doctors spoke to Sami’s mother and father about possibly amputating her left leg after she repeatedly developed life-threatening blood clots.
“We really had to give it to God and if that was his will that was fine,” Charity Bayless said. “Fortunately, we we’re very thankful that she didn’t clot again in that leg and we were able to save the leg. The doctors fought very hard for that leg and so that was a big deal.”
Sami Bayless said the first three months in Denver were slow and hard.
“I was stuck in a bed,” Sami said. “This is the palest I’ve ever been because I was always outside in the sun, doing stuff, working. I lost a lot of strength, I lost a lot of color, I lost a lot of weight, a lot of weight. I lost hair. I’m still losing the hair.”
Back to rehab
Finally, doctors declared her recovered enough to return to her rehabilitation, which was good news to Sami.
Charity said when they first returned to Craig Hospital on Sept. 26, Sami was still on an IV drip and had to have infusion treatment that kept her in bed for three hours a day.
“Initially it was a little slower, but once she got off that, where she could really focus on hard core rehabilitation, she just took off and excelled,” Charity said. “It was just crushing milestone after milestone, setting new records and really, she’s had the nurses and therapists all in amazement at her progress.”
Sami said the last couple of months have been a relief.
“Last month went fast because I was back on a schedule,” she said. “It started at 8 in the morning and didn’t get done until 4 or 5, and it was consistent, and it felt really fast. It also felt really good because when we were at Swedish, I didn’t feel like I was making any progress, but when I got back to Craig, I started making progress.”
Sending thanks home
Charity and Sami say the support from their “communities” has been key to this miracle of prayer and modern medicine.
They used the term communities, plural, to include their rodeo community — Sami was an avid rodeo rider — as well as supporters in Lockwood, where they live, Lamar, where they have friends, and Carthage, where many of their family live.
Supporters in all four of those communities have come together to raise money, send letters of support, and do whatever is needed to help Sami and her family get through.
And it has been needed.
Charity Bayless had to give up her job with the state of Missouri to stay in Colorado full time to help her daughter.
Charity said her husband and other children have really stepped up to the plate to maintain their home in Missouri while she and Sami are in Colorado.
“Family and Medical Leave is only good for 12 weeks and I was employed by the State of Missouri, so through this I did lose my job,” Charity said. “That was kind of a challenge, but we also know everything’s taken care of and we’ll be fine. When the time’s right I’ll go back to work somewhere and do something, but in the meantime, right now, my focus is on my family and that’s where it needs to be.”
Sami said her faith and the love of friends and strangers have kept her going through everything. She said she appreciates the support she has received through Facebook.
“That means a lot because a lot of those people I don’t even know,” Sami Bayless said. “I’ve never met a lot of those people, so it means a lot to me that they care about someone they don’t even know. It’s crazy, it reminds me that there’s still good in this world too.”
