Bunch resigned his seat in the Kentucky House on October 26, 2011, following his head injury, and Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear called for a special election to be held December 20, 2011, to fill the rest of Bunch's term, which was to end December 31, 2012. DeWayne Bunch's wife Regina, a special education teacher at Whitley County Middle School, announced that she would seek to succeed him in office, running as a Republican. Local party leaders named Regina Bunch as their candidate. As of November 16, 2011, Democratic Party leaders in Whitley County said they were unlikely to nominate a candidate to oppose her.[3][4][5]
Head injury and death
On April 12, 2011, while attempting to break up a fight in the school cafeteria, Bunch was knocked down and hit his head on the floor, which the local sheriff described as being hard "like slate".[2] In the immediate aftermath of the incident he was reported to be in "extremely critical condition",[2] after being rushed to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, where he was treated for more than two weeks, before being transferred to the Shepherd Center, a specialized facility in Atlanta for the treatment and rehabilitation of brain and spinal cord injuries.[6] By June, he was communicating with his family, and had regained certain abilities, but as of October 2011, he was still a patient at the Shepherd Center.[7]
Bunch died on July 11, 2012, from the injuries sustained the year before, aged 50.[8]
References
^Bunch, Dewayne, Our Campaigns Web site, accessed October 16, 2011