At 19, Sarah Panzau was a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association’s (NJCAA) All-American women’s volleyball team. She set records for the most amount of spikes and cuts during a single volleyball game at her high school and accepted a full scholarship to a local junior college in her hometown of Saint Louis, MO. But on Aug. 23, 2003, all of that would change.
Panzau was only a sophomore in college when she made the life-changing decision to get behind the wheel of her car after a long night of drinking, and turn on the ignition. Not long after, she was airlifted to the St. Louis University emergency room in a coma – her left arm completely severed from the rest of her body.
Despite receiving a zero percent chance of survival, Panzau lived to tell her tale and now travels around the country speaking to students about the dangers of drinking underage, drunk driving, and making good life choices. On the thirteenth anniversary of her accident, she stopped at Heritage to talk to sophomore and junior classes.
“One of the first things I asked when I woke up was, ‘Did I kill anybody?’” Panzau said.
“They [the nurses] compared being put to sleep before surgery at a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.35. I was driving my vehicle at a 0.31 (nearly four times the legal driving limit).”
During her presentation, Panzau wore athletic attire so students could easily see her scars – each a painful reminder for Panzau of the accident and the forty surgeries that followed it.
“That is why I talk about knowing who your friends are. Not that it was my friends’ responsibility. I made my own choices, but you always think they’re going to have your back. I haven’t seen or heard from any of those ‘friends’ since that night.” Panzau said. “The people who never left my side? My family.”
After her accident, Panzau visited local high schools to talk to students about the dangers of driving under the influence. A year and a half afterwards she was offered a sponsorship by Anheuser-Busch. Thanks to Budweiser’s partnership, Panzau now travels across the country to share her story with the world. She now travels for nine months out of the year, visiting home only on the weekends, and does not plan on quitting soon.
“My speaking helps me. It’s like therapy every day. There are times in my presentation where I’ll bring tears to your eyes, and then the next five minutes you’re laughing from your gut. It’s a good balance,” Panzau said.
Although her life has changed for the better since the crash, Panzau is still haunted by her past decisions.
“Some people think I deserve what I got for the choices that I made. There was an article done in my local newspaper and somebody wrote in anonymously and said they didn’t know why the Belleville News Democrat was glorifying my drunk driving crash on the front page. It’s been very hard for me in the last 13 years to keep people close. I’m surprised that I’m married.”
When she is not talking about life choices, Panzau is likely talking about makeup. She is a committed member of “Beauty and Hustle,” a FaceBook community of more than 10,000 women who share makeup and beauty tips.
“My biggest hobby is makeup. That’s the only thing I really spend money on myself for – you should see my collection.” Panzau said. “[On FaceBook] I do live videos on how I do my makeup. I don’t have a blog right now, but we’ll see what happens.”
One of the hardest things to do is get up in front of high school students and hold their attention. But through it all, Panzau was able to do that and more. Her presentation moved students, teachers and faculty alike, as was evident by the standing ovation she received right after.
“I’m not superwoman,” Panzau said. “I have days where I hurt so bad that I don’t want to get out of bed. I have days where I see every single flaw and imperfection in my body and it depresses me.”
Above all else though, Panzau wants students to know “the choices you make when you’re young can have lifelong consequences.”
To read more about Sarah’s journey follow this link: http://sarahsjourney.com/story.html
