Saw this online today:
[size=18px]Tarik's MySpace Profile[/size]
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...AGV9JFCM91.DTL
[size=18px]Teen wrestler fighting for his life
High school champ dragged 140 feet by truck a week ago[/size]
When 17-year-old wrestling champion Tarik Aldalali of San Francisco was struck by a cement truck and dragged 140 feet a week ago, nobody -- not even his mother -- expected him to make it through the night. Now he is doing what friends and family say he does best: refusing to give up.
As thousands of dollars have poured into a fund designed to help defray his medical costs, and friends at Galileo High honored him by carrying his picture during Wednesday's graduation ceremony, Tarik remained in critical condition Thursday at Stanford Hospital, where he was fighting for his life.
"If anybody could survive getting hit by a cement truck, it's Tarik. He's a fighter," said his friend Giuliano Sarinelli, a teammate who attends the same mosque. "He has so much to live for."
Tarik's mother, Alyssa Davidson, flew in from Ohio to be by her son's side. She said that doctors have amputated his left arm above the elbow and his right leg above the knee. And he will need 12 to 15 more surgeries, she said.
There are many others rooting for Tarik. His second-grade teacher called Galileo and was frustrated that she couldn't get information on how he was doing. A teacher who walked around at graduation Wednesday collected $1,000 in his behalf. Kane's law firm, Orrick, Harrington and Sutcliffe, plans a generous donation. A school volunteer wrote her own check for $1,000.
The money is needed for prosthetics, which have to be replaced every three years and are expensive.
Tarik, born and raised mostly in San Francisco and Concord, moved to Yemen with his father, Mohamed, in 2000, but came back in 2004. He attended Newcomer High, then transferred to Galileo this year as a sophomore. He embraced wrestling, and appreciated the diversity that came with its team members. His sense of humor helped him blend in seamlessly, said Kane.
Tarik was in Dublin celebrating his brother's 19th birthday on June 8, when he decided to take a ride on a motorized scooter. Wearing a helmet, he rode the scooter on Dougherty Road about 2:30 p.m., police said. He overshot the footpath onto the curve of the roadway, where he was hit and dragged by the truck. He was first treated at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley for a punctured lung, broken pelvis, crushed left leg, lacerated liver and massive opening to his stomach. Kane and an assistant coach visited him in the hospital before he was transferred Monday to Stanford Hospital, where he underwent surgery Thursday to insert a tube in his chest, his mother said.[img][/img]