A teen rodeo champ underwent surgery Thursday night after a bull-riding incident left him with serious injuries a week prior, his father said.
In a Nov. 21 Facebook post, Daniel Smith said his son Walker “Hollywood” Smith, 17, “just got out of surgery and is doing fine” after a bull stepped on Walker’s chest last Friday.
Daniel posted frequent updates, summarizing that the night had been “rough.”
Since Walker’s accident, Daniel says Walker suffered from “a series of mini strokes in his brain. He is currently hospitalized and under the care of a neurologist at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Fla.
“He is not moving his hands and feet. They unplugged him to see if he was breathing on his and he had trouble,” Daniel said of his son in a Nov. 18 Facebook message. “So they plugged him back up.”
The father stated that right now, Walker’s family has many questions that they hope will be answered.
“So are needing more prayers more than ever Walker is strong kid. He is fighting for his life right now I’m asking everyone to claim in the name of JESUS THAT HEALING IS ON THE WAY…. Only God can do this. We appreciate all your prayers and thoughts and love.. please keep it coming,” the post concluded.
Jenna Wade Truitt Neal organized a GoFundMe account for Walker to allow “his sweet parents to be able to focus on helping Walker get better and come home!”
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“Walker was injured in a bullriding accident where he wound up being life-flighted for a collapsed lung. By the time he got there it was both lungs and had bleeding on the brain,” she wrote.
Daniel and his wife Sabrina spoke to WCTV about how they learned of their son’s accident.
“The initial phone call was he had been kicked by the bull in his chest, and they were going to have him looked at by the EMTs,” Sabrina told the news station. “Just a short while later, I received another phone call that he was being life-flighted.”
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Daniel said he and Sabrina were over 300 miles away in Tallahassee when they got the call. From there, they “pretty much started packing clothes” and made the four-hour drive to their son.
“I’m not handling anything well. I’m not,” he told the news station on Nov. 19. “Usually, I’m the one that’s telling everybody it’s ok. I’m the one that’s… but I’m not doing well.”
Sabrina, who also has a 26-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter, said Walker’s siblings are “struggling bad.”
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Walker began riding miniature bulls when he was just 12 years old. The Florida Virtual School graduate is “highly renowned in the World Championship Bull Riding (WCMB) circuit,” and was the 2022 Junior Bull Riding Champion of the Year.
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