Friday, March 12 at 2:15pm Stephanie (Stevie to her family) swerved off Hwy 147 near AU Fisheries and hit a tree head on. The impact was slightly off center to the passenger side saving her life. The EMT’s who rescued her from the car say it too 20 minutes to extract her all the while she was not conscious.

They were unable to find identification other than the car tag. Once at the East Alabama Medical Center emergency room, the tag was traced to me and the AU operator forwarded the ER to me ~2:50pm. I relayed the news to Jean, Henry (my parents) and Trisha (my sister from Orlando who just happened to be visiting) asking them to contact Susan knowing Susan might be hard to get. I then raced to the hospital arriving at ~3:10pm. Susan was just leaving school to take Stacey to the doctors when Henry reached her so she arrived at the ER shortly after me. Others in the family including Spenser and Stacey arrived about 3:45.

Stevie was not breathing on her own and was in a coma. Injuries to her right side were extensive. Her ashen body laying on the stretcher in the ER conjured up the worst for all that saw her including the staff. At four the decision was made to medicvac her to UBA Medical Center in Atlanta. The chopper arrived at ~5:15 and was off with Stevie fifteen minutes later. Susan and I jumped in her van and started to Birmingham.

An hour and fifty minutes into the two hour and twenty minute trip the EMT on the chopper called and said they Stevie was in the UAB ER. They had given her two units of blood on the way to counter her drop in blood pressure. You cannot imagine how appreciative we were of that call.