This patient came to Regional One Health from: MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE that Won’t Be Crushed The Ouachita Baptist University Tigers have on their women’s basketball roster a young Memphian who has defied dozens of odds. After a tough tryout that the coach was reluctant to even offer, the women’s basketball team accepted Laura Spradlin as a walkon player. This was just two years after Laura and her parents didn’t even know whether she would be alive for tryouts. Laura lived through a crushing car accident. It happened on an afternoon that started off like every other day—math tutoring for Laura, a lunch meeting for dad, and lunch out for mom, who homeschooled Laura. Laura’s green sedan took a direct hit from a truck on a driving route that Laura traveled often. Just like that, Laura went from a hard-working teen who had mastered classical piano and had future plans to play college basketball to a trauma patient at Regional One Health. Lee Ann and Mike Spradlin, Laura’s parents, arrived at the trauma center to a dizzying array of bad news. The lower half of her skull had detached from the upper half and her brain was hemorrhaging. Many of her bones had broken. She had severe bleeding throughout her body. “Even with our faith, it was a very dark time,” her dad remembers. “We didn’t know if she was going to make it. Even if she did, we knew there was the possibility of massive brain injury and disability.” Joyous moments kept the family afloat during Laura’s recovery. The day she came out of her coma, a nurse called the Spradlins immediately. Mike thought Regional One was calling to discuss yet another surgery. Instead, he heard his DONATE.REGIONALONEHEALTHFOUNDATION.ORG 8
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