Teacher sent to Rehab FacilityThis is a featured page

Mrs. Powell was in a single car accident in Daytona, February 15th.
She was on her way home from visiting her husband in Daytona.
The accident caused spinal and neck damage, that now leaves her paralyzed from the neck down,
with only slight movement in her arms.
She was unable to speak, and was put on a feeding tube and ventilator.





After her tragic crash, Judy Powell is learning to live with her physical limitations.
On Friday, Powell was transferred to the not-for-profit spinal cord injury specialty hospital
Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga., from Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach, where she had
resided since her Feb. 15 single-car accident in Daytona.


Powell, 65, is a veteran English teacher at Crystal River High School and director
of its prestigious Academy of Health Ca-reers. She is the 2008 Citrus County School District
teach-er of the year. According to Crystal River High Principal Patrick Simon, she planned to
retire this school year. She has an apartment in Crystal River and traveled each weekend
to be with her husband, Jim, at their home in Daytona.
Friend and colleague Diane Holmes gathers information about Powell’s progress daily from
her husband, and sends e-mail updates to faculty members and friends.


“She just received a custom wheelchair yesterday (Monday),” Holmes, a
registered nurse, said. Doctors plan to remove the surgical halo attached to her head
within the next few days, Holmes said. Now, Powell will wear a cervical collar. She remains
paralyzed from the shoulders down but has some feeling in her lower arms and hands;
doctors hope she will regain mobility in those areas, Holmes said.


“She is able to mouth words,” Holmes said.
Powell is still ventilator-dependent. After it is removed, doctors expect she will speak
but there is no telling when she will be taken off the ventilator, Holmes said. Also, a tracheotomy
tube acts like a windpipe, allowing her to breathe.“She is eating on her own … solid foods,” Holmes said.


Still, Powell remains on a gastric feeding tube for overnight feedings.
After many weeks of inpatient rehabilitation to learn how to “function in society at the
highest level possible,” Powell will move into a hospital-owned apartment, with her husband,
to undergo outpatient rehabilitation, Holmes said.


Those wishing to write get-well cards and letters may send them to Powell at: Shepherd Center,
2020 Peachtree Road, NW, Atlanta, GA, 30309-1465. Well-wishers should avoid sending flowers to the
center, Holmes said. “Get-well cards can play an important part in a person’s recovery,
as they help the patient know they are being sent thoughts and prayers along with love,”
friend Georgeanne Stancil Schore said in a letter to the Chronicle.


Pennies4JPowell
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