Dee Smiley in coma after being hit by truck at Sandgate
Beloved Forest Lake mother and Brisbane paralegal Dee Smiley is fighting for her life after a weekend getaway ended with a horror crash at Sandgate that left her in a coma.
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Loved ones have wrapped around a “vivacious” Forest Lake mother left fighting for her life after she was hit by a truck in a horrendous crash at Sandgate.
Dee Smiley was on her way home after a getaway with husband Craig on October 11 when they stopped in at the coastal suburb where the unimaginable happened.
“We’d actually had a lovely weekend together,” said Mr Smiley — Dee’s husband of four years.
The pair had spent the weekend on the Sunshine Coast and had stopped for morning tea at Sandgate.
The beautiful paralegal who works at Brisbane lawyers Hall and Wilcox even checked into Sandgate cafe Capulet and Co on social media right before the life-changing event unfolded.
Mr Smiley said the pair went to cross the road using a pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Brighton Rd and Lagoon St.
“The light went green (to cross the road) … and then bang.”
Both Mr Smiley and his wife were struck by an oncoming truck.
While Mr Smiley miraculously walked away with gravel rash and bruises, his wife sustained a fractured skull and brain injury which knocked her unconscious and later required her to be placed in an induced coma at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
She has remained there ever since.
Mr Smiley faced the fielded a flood of vital questions about his wife as she clung to life.
“(Doctors said) we might have to cut half her skull off, here’s a consent form … it’s very, very confronting.
“They were two weeks that just had to happen … there’s nothing you can do but just be here.”
Mrs Smiley fully woke from her induced coma last Thursday and continued to bravely fight an up hill battle when she urgently needed a tracheotomy when the intubation tube she had used to breath while unconscious left her throat so swollen it closed up once removed.
But otherwise, Mr Smiley said “Dee hasn’t taken a backwards step”.
“Dee is vivacious and bubbly. She’s one of those ladies … when they’re under pressure, they have this enormous sense of calm … and that’s what will get her through.”
Mrs Smiley has two children, Corbin, 18, and Chanel, 15, while Mr Smiley has one daughter Elizabeth, 16.
Mr Smiley said the events had been especially hard on Corbin and Chanel, who lost their father to a brain tumour.
“They’ve been extremely brave,” Mr Smiley said.
“They’ve had to face seeing (their mum) rigged up the same way (in hospital like their father).”
Loved ones have flocked around the family including Mrs Smiley's former colleague Britt McVey who has launched a Go Fund Me campaign for the family.
“Dee is the most amazing, kind-hearted, selfless woman anyone will ever meet,” Ms McVey said.
“Anyone who knows her and anyone in her life knows how truly amazing of a person she is.
“She sat across from me (while working at Hall and Wilcox) and she very quickly became a motherly role model for me.
“I could talk to her about absolutely anything and knew she was always there for me no matter what.
“Dee has many beautiful friends and family who have her in their thoughts and are praying for a speedy recovery but we know it is going to be a long recovery process.”
A police investigation into the incident at Sandgate is ongoing and no one has been charged.
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