would track someone in the room, but mostly they were fixed on the TV.

Then a miracle occurred in 2005: Suddenly the woman who had been living with a traumatic brain injury began communicating.

All totaled, Sarah spent more than 30 years as a resident at Diversicare, the former Golden Plains Nursing Home. Once she began to communicate, her story spread around the globe. She was lauded as a “medical miracle.”

Now, Sarah's only sibling, Jim Scantlin, who lives in Nashville, is returning to Hutchinson with his wife, Beth. They plan to celebrate Sarah's life with family and friends during a wake at Carl's Bar from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Jim can recall that night in September when Sarah, just weeks into her freshman year at Hutchinson Community College, was hitby the driver, who fled the scene.

“That was the start of the rest of our life with her,” Jim Scantlin said.

Sarah spent the first eight weeks in a coma, breathing with the help of a ventilator. The surgeons in Wichita told her family that Sarah was physically strong and would survive the injuries to her body, but she had a severe injury to her brain which she wouldn't recover from. She spent nine months in the hospital and then was moved to Hutchinson. She was breathing on her own by then, but relied on a feeding tube for nourishment.

Doctors expected her to live for only five to 10 years and said she would never walk.

Miracle long time coming

“We never thought she would speak,” said Jim Scantlin. “When we