6-year-old girl recovering from brain injury gets her very own 'Christmas Carol' production

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20131222/GO/131229985/1685#6-year-old-girl-recovering-from-brain-injury-gets-her-very-own-christmas-carol-production

By Bob Fischbach

At a unique, invitation-only production of “A Christmas Carol” in Lincoln on Thursday, the miracle of Ebenezer Scrooge’s conversion will compete with the miracle of Alexis Verzal’s remarkable recovery from a brain injury.

Alexis, 6, saw “A Christmas Carol” a year ago for the first time at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Her parents, Brandon and Tiffany, decided to take her because Brandon had loved the show so much when he was growing up in Omaha.

“We went almost every year as a family,” he said last week in Lincoln, where he and Tiffany run their own video production company, V2 Content. “I loved it from the time I was really little. I wanted to take her as soon as she was old enough.

But with her brain injury, which doctors and investigators said was shaken-baby syndrome, sitting still for 2½ hours was a lot to ask of Alexis.

Snip: On their way home from the trial, the Verzals got a call from Madonna Hospital. Larry the Cable Guy (Nebraska native Dan Whitney, who lives near Lincoln) had seen a Verzal video about Alexis. He decided to donate $1.2 million to Madonna for a new hospital wing, which has since been named the Alexis Verzal Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital at Madonna.

FULL story and photo at link.