Baylie Grogan's Tragic Accident Is a Wake-Up Call for Parents and Young Adults

The story behind Baylie Grogan’s death is perhaps one of the most tragic to tell, and that’s because it happened just as her life was really beginning. But as difficult as it is, her mother, Shawnee Baker, is sharing Baylie’s story with the world in her book Baylie.

She wrote it to highlight why parents and their adult children should have a legal plan in place for the unexpected and to shine a light on the dangers of ridesharing, and the fine line between having fun and a risky situation.

For Baylie, that line was tragically crossed. In August 2018, her parents were met with intense confusion and countless hurdles after learning that their 19-year-old daughter had been involved in a horrific accident, and they had no voice in terms of her medical care.

Now, they want other parents to be prepared and hopefully prevent a similar tragedy from happening. Here’s what happened to Baylie Grogan.

Baylie Grogan was only 19 years old when she was hit by a car, an accident that landed her in the ICU and, just a few weeks later, dead. But it wasn’t just the crash that made her story so heartbreaking; it was the series of events that led up to it, and everything that followed.

Baylie was a sophomore at the University of Miami, a pre-med student, and it was the first weekend back on campus for the fall semester when she decided to go out with some friends. Somehow, she got separated from them in downtown Miami. So, at 1:14 a.m., she ordered an Uber, according to WMUR9.

But by 1:20 am, just six minutes later, she canceled it.

That’s because, according to Baylie’s Wish Foundation, a nonprofit started by her parents, she had been approached by two guys who claimed they were also med students heading back to campus. So Baylie canceled her Uber and decided to get in their car.

Her first mistake was getting separated from her friends. Her second was trusting two random guys in downtown Miami.

According to the foundation’s website, the men weren’t med students at all, and Baylie “quickly realized it was all a lie.” Text messages sent from her phone show that she told her friends they were “some random bros” and even called them “sketchy” because they refused to give her their real names.

While the car ride was only five miles long, a lot happened in that short time. They stopped at one of the guys’ apartments, where he brought her a glass of water. But Baylie felt something was off and texted her roommate: “They are trying to get me to drink the water — too much.”

After spilling the water, the men apparently got upset and left to go to a nearby club, saying they’d get her another drink.

By the time one of them returned to the car, Baylie was gone. But she had presumably already ingested something, because according to her parents, she began showing signs of impairment.

By 3 a.m., Baylie was walking alone in the rain, calling her friends for help. They told her to order an Uber, but she said she couldn’t. They told her to walk home, and she tried. But she never made it.

Baylie walked into oncoming traffic and was struck by a car, according to a witness, per WMUR9. She spent six weeks in a coma before she passed away. And here’s what made an already devastating situation even worse.

Because Baylie was 19 and legally considered an adult, she hadn’t named a health care proxy, meaning her parents, who were in Maine when they got the call, couldn’t make medical decisions on her behalf.

They also weren’t allowed to request a toxicology test to determine whether she had been drugged.

While Baylie was eventually moved from Miami to Massachusetts General Hospital, her parents still had no say in her medical care, including the decision to keep her alive, something they believe she wouldn’t have wanted in that condition.

Not only did she suffer major internal bleeding and severe brain swelling that left her unrecognizable, but since her parents couldn’t intervene, the hospital decided to keep her alive, in a coma, until her body finally let go.