In early 2001, Stacey Sewell was a star softball player for Athens State University, which was ranked one of the top small-college teams in the nation.

Life could not have been better for the 21-year-old Athens High School graduate. She was happy, playing the game she loved in her hometown and engaged to be married.

But on Feb. 3, 2001, all of that was put on hold.

A tragic accident on Golf Road and South Memorial Parkway in Huntsville left Stacey critically injured and in a coma. She would be hospitalized for the next 12 weeks.

Today, Stacey remains in a semi-comatose state, homebound and in a wheelchair. Her parents, friends and fiancé pray that one day her brain will heal and bring her back to the way she was the day of the accident.

Her fiancé, Galen Euting, who is a teacher at Valley Fellowship in Huntsville, has stood steadfastly by her side. He believes one day he and Stacey will be married and able to raise a family.

Her mother, Annie Sewell, who cares for her at their West Washington Street home, also believes Stacey will one day fully recover.

“I know she can come out of this,” said Galen, who visits Stacey at least five times a week. The two spend time together in the “Barnes & Noble Room” that he set up inside her home. He built the room because the two loved the bookstore and enjoyed reading together prior to the wreck.

Euting, who said the two met while attending a Fellowship of Christian Athletes Camp in Kentucky, believes their names point out their destiny. In the Bible, he said, the Greek name Stacey means “will rise again” and the name Galen means “healer.”

“This is something far above coincidence,” Euting said. “It’s way above that. I know God has a plan for her and amazing things will happen. She is the best friend I have ever known and I will love her forever.”



Trip to Amsterdam

Next month, Stacey may get the break her family, friends and fiancé have been waiting for.

On Aug. 28, the Sewells will board a plane to Amsterdam to see Professor Frederick Carrick, who attends patients in a variety of comatose and vegetative states throughout the world on a humanitarian basis.

“I don’t know if he can help her,” said Mrs. Sewell. “I just believe if God opens the door, we need to walk in and take it.”

Although Stacey is unable to speak and care for herself, she is fully aware of what is going on around her, her mother said. Doctors have told the family the wreck “sheared her brain stem” and it could take years for the brain to heal.

“She can move her toes and thumb some when we ask her to do that,” said Mrs. Sewell. “I’ve seen her moving her mouth trying to talk.”



No spinal injury

The wreck did not injure her spine.

“To look at Stacey, you would never know she was hurt,” her mother said. “There is not a mark on her anywhere.”

Dr. Carrick is known worldwide. He is professor emeritus of neurology at Parker College and is Logan College’s distinguished post-graduate professor of clinical neurology. His doctoral specialty is brain-based learning, and his work has been the subject of a PBS documentary, “Waking up the Brain: Amazing Adjustments.”

Stacey has been on a waiting list to see the doctor since August 2003.

The trip to Amsterdam will be expensive – between $5,000 and $6,000.

“This is our chance to see what can be done,” said Mrs. Sewell. “I feel it’s a trip we must make, no matter the cost.”

To help pay expenses, an account has been created in Stacey’s name at First American Bank in Athens.

“My husband Eddie and I would like to thank the Athens community for all of their prayers and support,” said Mrs. Sewell. “We are so blessed to live in Athens and be surrounded by loving, caring people. We know that Stacey realizes how much she is loved.”

As for Euting, Mrs. Sewell said his actions reveal his love.

“He’s been wonderful,” she said. “Stacey is his life. He’s very dedicated to her.”