The Artist is a friend of hers offline the sketch was done in person, so theres no deviant link,

http://s33.photobucket.com/user/Shades_4/media/tags/AvainSpirit-shades-1.gif.html

My question is how could she use her picture which was hand drawn for her as her display pic? since just using it as is, gets taken down by a staff?

I would specify, "Avatar was drawn for me by a friend" in her bio, and perhaps a link to a photo of proof that she may use it.