Photo: GoFundMe
A family is seeking answers after a recent college graduate lost her legs in an alleged freak boating accident.
According to AL.com, 22-year-old Hannah Smith fell off a pontoon boat and was dragged into the propeller earlier while visiting the Bahamas earlier this month. Smith took the Bahamas vacation with her best friend to celebrate graduating summa cum laude from Miles College in Florida.
The accident reportedly unfolded as the boat was docking. Two passengers stepped in and saved Smith, pulling her out of the water and applying pressure to her partially severed legs.
Smith was taken to a local hospital before being airlifted to a Miami medical center for several surgeries.
Authorities have suggested that Smith jumped off the boat, and alcohol may have been at play.
However, Smith's mother, Tracy, denied such claims, telling the Daily Mail that her daughter "was not intoxicated."
"She fell from the boat. It’s hurtful to say she jumped because she did not.”
Smith's dad, Marvin, said he spoke with a doctor who treated his daughter in Nassau.
“The doctor suggested she was coherent when they first got to the hospital," he told the Daily Mail. “Everything he said suggested she was not inebriated.”
“Do they have fun? Yes. Were they drunk? No,” Smith's mother added. “Did she jump? No. Are we completely aware of what happened? No.”
“But could there have been a safety mechanism that was off, was the boat rocking, we are not 100 percent sure of that,” she continued.
"There are so many things that could have been happening. I want to know the truth,” Tracy said. “This was a young woman, happy, celebrating her life and now she’s fighting for it.”
A GoFundMe campaign was launched to raise money for Smith's medical expenses in the wake of the incident.
“Through the grace of God, she’s still with us, but the road ahead is long, filled with surgeries, recovery, and overwhelming medical costs,” the fundraiser reads.
Smith's parents revealed that their daughter is unaware of the full extent of her injuries because she is still under heavy sedation.
"With the sedations, medications, the trauma, everything, there were also hallucinations, which they tell us is part of coming off sedation," Tracy told The Mirror. "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."
"We're trying to keep her spirits up," she added. "She's in a lot of pain. We're trying to practice techniques to distract her from it. Encourage her and just try to keep her pushing forward."
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