'Unique' injury leads to unique acceptance

PALO ALTO -- On the night before his 18th birthday, Joe Kay threw down an emphatic, ovation-inducing tomahawk dunk for his Tucson High basketball team, the big man on campus delivering again.

The world, it seemed, was Kay's for the taking.

At 6 feet 6, he was a basketball star and a scholarship-worthy volleyball player, an outstanding athlete and a top scholar, a straight-A student and class valedictorian, a math whiz and an award-winning saxophonist.

As he led a spirited victory over rival Salpointe Catholic, punctuating his performance with a dunk, delirious classmates chanted his name.

Soon, he would be headed to Stanford to play volleyball.

In time, he would be a lawyer, like his parents, or maybe a doctor.

Just about everything he'd ever attempted had been a slam dunk, his mother would say, so Kay's future seemed unlimited, his success a certainty.

And then the game ended.

In the immediate aftermath, the crowd stormed the court in celebration, one particularly exuberant fan running straight at Kay and bowling him over. The star of the game wound up under a dog pile, tackled and trampled and terrified.

His neck was twisted, blood flow to his brain restricted.

Not quite old enough to vote, he suffered a stroke.

His life was changed forever.

Nearly 4 1/2 years later, in a campus cafe at Stanford, Kay offers his left hand in greeting and tells a visitor, "My accident was pretty unique."

As was his acceptance of it.

Though Kay, 22, is unable to play, Stanford honored his volleyball scholarship. His right side is partially paralyzed, his right hand of limited use. He walks with a slight hitch in his step and suffers from aphasia, a partial loss of the ability to use or articulate words, although it's not apparent until he mentions it.

"He has the strongest spirit," says his mother, Suzanne Rabe. "He has accepted his injury with grace and in a very practical manner. . . .

"He marches forward."

Majoring in American studies, Kay recently completed his junior year and landed a summer fellowship with Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

He will work as an intern for a government agency in Washington in the fall, plans to study in Berlin next winter and, after graduating next June, still might pursue a law degree.