A year and a half after a freak occurrence left him partially paralyzed, Joe Kay has arrived for his freshman year at Stanford.
The one-time Cardinal volleyball recruit came to campus September 19 after spending what was to have been his freshman year in intensive rehabilitation. A two-sport star in high school, Kay suffered a stroke in February 2004 after students at his Tucson high school crashed into him while celebrating a basketball victory. (“Boy, Interrupted,” January/February 2005).
Kay won’t be playing varsity sports, but he expects to hold his own in the classroom. His speech is close to normal and he can walk relatively smoothly, but he continues to struggle to use his right arm and math is not as easy for him as it once was.
Kay plans to spend time with the other guys on the volleyball team. “They are the only people I pretty much know,” he says. Dan Garza, ’91, MD ’00, the team doctor for the volleyball squad, has been in contact with Kay and his family, arranging for adaptive equipment so Kay can work out with the other players. “Our main goal is to incorporate him with the team as much as we can,” Garza says. “We just want to have something to offer him if he wants that.”
