Teen home from hospital after Wayne County crash in June

CABELL COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – A teenage girl who was seriously injured in a vehicle crash in June is now home from the hospital, according to a family member.

The family of Reece Paynter, 15, says Reece made it home on Sunday after weeks of physical therapy in Columbus and is “doing great.”

Reece was critically injured on Tuesday, June 18 in a Wayne County vehicle crash. Her older sister, 17-year-old Raelyn, was killed in the crash. Their younger sister sustained minor injuries.

The girls are the daughters of Pastor Jason Paynter and Michelle Paynter of Huntington. Jason Paynter is the pastor of Good Shepherd Holiness Church in Huntington.

Reece was in critical condition after the crash happened, and her cousin Clayburne Stevens said the family had been told there was less than a 5% chance she’d wake up.

By June 21, she’d already started to show signs of improvement, and Stevens said doctors were amazed by how well she’d been doing. However, the family says doctors still didn’t expect her to make this much of a recovery and had told her father she would be “a vegetable.”

On June 28, Stevens told 13 News Reece began breathing without any help from a ventilator and was even able to speak complete sentences after the breathing tube was removed. The family said at that time Reece’s recovery is an answered prayer and thanked everyone for their continued prayers. When she began breathing on her own, Stevens told 13 News that Reece’s improvement was “nothing short of a miracle.”

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