Bemidji State News Reporting S'11

From Rock Bottom to the Top

Sarah Panzau lives to tell about a tragic accident that turned her into a motivational speaker

By Nicole Solum & Kara Smyth

It was a warm August night in 2003 in Illionois when Sarah Panzau entered a 25-mph exit ramp driving 72 mph. Her blood alcohol level registered at .308, nearly four times the legal limit. She went straight off and flipped her car four times. She was dragged along a guard rail for more than 30 feet. She was pronounced clinically dead on the scene. Just when authorities were going to call the coroner, they heard faint breathing. They immediately intubated her and she was air-lifted to a hospital where she remained in a coma for two weeks and in intensive care for four more.

Panzau endure 40 surgeries to get where she is today. Her injuries included a traumatic left arm amputation, a type II fracture of the maxilla, a mandible fractured in seven places, a scalping of the whole back of her head and left side of her neck to the carotid artery and jugular vein. She severed three major ligaments in her knee and fractured her left clavicle and scapula down to the muscle. Her liver had a third-degree laceration and half of her right ear was severed off. Panzau also suffered a pulmonary embolism, which required a thoracotomy. She initially spent a total of 77 days in the hospital.

After she survived this accident, Panzau decided to dedicate her time to sharing her story and preventing others from making her same mistake. “Not many people get to walk throughout life and impact people by telling their story, I’m just blessed to have that opportunity,” Panzau states. She travels the nation speaking at elementary schools, high schools and universities. Recently, Panzau came to BSU, where she spoke to a crowd of about 130 students, most of whom were athletes; Panzau was a volleyball player in high school and college. “She was the best speaker BSU has had,” said sophomore elementary education major Alex Petes. “She made the best of her situation.” Panzau stood on stage, in a tank top, not trying to hide the fact that she only had one arm. Panzau said ". . . never assume that it can't happen to you."

The BSU audience listened attentively to her dramatic story. Panzau attended high school in Belleville, Ill., where she was a three-year starter on the varsity volleyball team. She received 23 volleyball scholarship offers and turned them all down to stay close to her boyfriend at the time. She decided to attend a junior college instead, where she was on the all-tournament team seven times and was a two-time All-American. Those accomplishments resulted in a full scholarship to a private, four-year college. However, Panzau struggled as a student and did not like school. A week before she was to sign her letter of intent she dropped out of school. “It must be so hard to have been an All-American athlete, to now being an athlete with only one arm." said junior volleyball player and design tech major Kim Hacker. "I don't think I could do it."

She began to change her life for the worse by moving to St. Louis and becoming a 19 year-old bartender and partying. She rebelled against everything and pushed her family away. This is the time when her horrible accident hapened. “I thought I was invincible,” said Panzau. “I was wrong.” The friends she considered her family were nowhere to be found after the accident. Not one of them came to see her in the hospital. Her true family stayed by her side and never left.

Panzau talked about how she is judged and looked at with harsh eyes every day. She talked about trying to renew her driver’s license just a year after the crash because she never got a DUI from the accident. The officers at the scene thought she fell asleep at the wheel and never suspected her of drunk driving. Her blood alcohol was taken at the hospital, after the case had been closed, and she was cited for falling asleep at the wheel. When Panzau went up to the “sweet old lady at the DMV…” she was told that she would need to retake her driving test because she was now handicapped. When she told this part of her story to the BSU audience she got choked up about it. She said, “I’m not handicap, I’m handicapable.”

Sarah’s life has changed completely. She is now an Olympic athlete with the United States women’s paraplegic volleyball team. In a recent game against Brazil, Panzau had the most digs and kills and, at the time, she was the only person in the world to play with only one arm. “I have my priorities straight now,” said Panzau. “It’s just hard that this is how I had to learn what’s really important in life.”