Max
05-03-2003, 06:54 PM
Community steps up to help injured father
By RAMONA TURNER
Sentinel staff writer
A Beth Fazal and her two young daughters are about to get the best Mother's Day gift they've ever had.
Fazal's husband, Rafiq, is coming home today after spending the last four months in a Silicon Valley hospital and a Vallejo rehabilitation center.
Rafiq, 43, was the victim of a freak accident Jan. 14. He was playing basketball on his first day off since he and his wife bought the Aptos Piggie Market on Valencia Avenue last September, when he fell backward over another player who had fallen behind him. Rafiq hit the pavement hard, breaking his vertebrae in two places, paralyzed from the elbows down.
Now he's coming home, but he's confined to his electric wheelchair.
"I and our two children (daughters, Yasmeen, 4, and Sarah, 6) cannot wait for his return," Beth, 40, said. "And Rafiq looks forward to getting back to work."
Since Rafiq's accident, a community outpouring has been helping to keep the market and hope alive. Through donations of time and money, the market has undergone many changes, including a new roof and coat of paint to marketing techniques for the shop's own product line.
But things are far from rosy for the former Silicon Valley high-tech workers who moved to Aptos to get away from the rat race. In their original plan, Rafiq was to tender the market and Beth was to be a stay-at-home mom. Now, the family is facing $500,000 medical bills this first year alone for Rafiq and the likelihood they will loose their Kaiser Permanente health-care benefits because Kaiser does not care for people who do not live in its coverage area. Kaiser does not serve Santa Cruz County.
"After our insurance runs out, we will be uninsurable," Beth said. "We are completely devastated in more ways than one."
But the community is not done helping yet. An Aptos Piggie Market employee has arranged a benefit concert to help raise money to pay for the Fazal family. The event is 9 p.m. May 10 at the Aptos Club, 7941 Soquel Drive. Local bands The Fire Sermon and Invert will perform. Cover is $10. For information, call 722-5900.
To donate to the Sarah and Yasmeen Fazal Children's Fund, drop it off at Aptos Piggie Market, 3000 Valencia Ave., or at the Bank of America branch at 783 Rio del Mar Blvd.
Contact Ramona Turner at rturner@santa-cruz.com.
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You can find this story online at:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/May/02/local/stories/05local.htm
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Copyright © Santa Cruz Sentinel. All rights reserved.
By RAMONA TURNER
Sentinel staff writer
A Beth Fazal and her two young daughters are about to get the best Mother's Day gift they've ever had.
Fazal's husband, Rafiq, is coming home today after spending the last four months in a Silicon Valley hospital and a Vallejo rehabilitation center.
Rafiq, 43, was the victim of a freak accident Jan. 14. He was playing basketball on his first day off since he and his wife bought the Aptos Piggie Market on Valencia Avenue last September, when he fell backward over another player who had fallen behind him. Rafiq hit the pavement hard, breaking his vertebrae in two places, paralyzed from the elbows down.
Now he's coming home, but he's confined to his electric wheelchair.
"I and our two children (daughters, Yasmeen, 4, and Sarah, 6) cannot wait for his return," Beth, 40, said. "And Rafiq looks forward to getting back to work."
Since Rafiq's accident, a community outpouring has been helping to keep the market and hope alive. Through donations of time and money, the market has undergone many changes, including a new roof and coat of paint to marketing techniques for the shop's own product line.
But things are far from rosy for the former Silicon Valley high-tech workers who moved to Aptos to get away from the rat race. In their original plan, Rafiq was to tender the market and Beth was to be a stay-at-home mom. Now, the family is facing $500,000 medical bills this first year alone for Rafiq and the likelihood they will loose their Kaiser Permanente health-care benefits because Kaiser does not care for people who do not live in its coverage area. Kaiser does not serve Santa Cruz County.
"After our insurance runs out, we will be uninsurable," Beth said. "We are completely devastated in more ways than one."
But the community is not done helping yet. An Aptos Piggie Market employee has arranged a benefit concert to help raise money to pay for the Fazal family. The event is 9 p.m. May 10 at the Aptos Club, 7941 Soquel Drive. Local bands The Fire Sermon and Invert will perform. Cover is $10. For information, call 722-5900.
To donate to the Sarah and Yasmeen Fazal Children's Fund, drop it off at Aptos Piggie Market, 3000 Valencia Ave., or at the Bank of America branch at 783 Rio del Mar Blvd.
Contact Ramona Turner at rturner@santa-cruz.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can find this story online at:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/May/02/local/stories/05local.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © Santa Cruz Sentinel. All rights reserved.