KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays are on hold for a Kansas City family as they prepare to bury a loved one. Twenty-two-year-old Shilah Floyd was critically injured in a car accident last Monday. She was taken off a ventilator this past Sunday night.
Her family remembers her as a beautiful person. She was ‘Big hearted, big smile Shilah,’ that’s what her Aunt Mashann called her. She was always helping others and never lied… except maybe about how tall she was.
“(She) claimed she was 4’ 11, but we all really think she was 4’ 7, 4’ 8, always laughing, always happy, always had a smile on her face,” Mashann Walker said.
Walker couldn’t stop gushing about her niece, Shilah, the oldest of five kids who was constantly on the go.
“Two jobs, but didn’t have any kids. Always a hard worker, there for family and friends whenever they needed anything,” Walker said.
Shilah was with her partner and her partner’s seven-year-old son on December 23rd. They were out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. The three were in a small passenger car, east bound on 35th Street when they were hit.
“Talked to witnesses, one of whom indicated the pickup truck driver disregarded a red traffic signal,” KCPD Sgt. Bill Mahoney said.
Without many initial details, Shilah’s family had to wait and see what condition the accident had left her in.
“(They) just said, ‘Shilah was in a car accident, get to the hospital,’ Didnt know the extent of it,” Walker said.
Little did she and the rest of the family know, their lives would be changed forever.
“Everything’s just stopped, just at a pause, ever since the 23rd we’ve been at the hospital everyday up until yesterday,” she said.
Sunday night was when Shilah was taken off the ventilator. Some family members didn’t want it to happen so quickly, but they didn’t know she was an organ donor.
“She was an organ donor, that was just like Shilah to want to help other people type of person she was,” Walker said.
While some were able to say goodbye, others weren’t. That was upsetting for them, but in the end they know what Shilah did in death the very same thing she did every day when she was alive.
“She will be able to help other people with her heart and lungs,” Walker said.
Shilah’s family is proud she was an organ donor, but they encourage anyone who signs up to be one to share the information with your family. That way they aren’t caught off-guard in case of an accident. It will be up to the prosecutor’s office to decide if charges will be filed against the driver of the truck.