DALLAS - Seven-year-old Armani Shaw can now smile. He can sound out words and understand his mother, which are all things Shawanna Shaw was told he would never do again.

"They said he was going to be brain dead," Shaw said. "He wasn't going to know who I was when he came through."

Armani was nearly decapitated last August when police say his father, 31-year-old Marcus Dewayne Shaw, was driving under the influence of drugs and crashed into a light pole on Lancaster Road in Dallas. Both Armani and his four-year-old brother were in the car, neither were wearing seat belts.

The seven year old, who a witness found on the floorboard of the car after the crash, was left paralyzed from the neck down by the crash. His brother was found crying, but safe.

Doctors said Armani suffered an "internal decapitation" and was not expected to survive. Three months later, he is beating the odds and is out of Children's Hospital's intensive care unit for the first time.

"He can smile," Shaw said. "It makes my world. After everything you've been through, you can lay up here and smile. It's a blessing."

As his father faces charges, he faces a long road to recovery.

E-mail ccivale@wfaa.com