Matt was 12 years old at the time.  We understand that the boy that hit him was 16 years old.  Matt was thrown 35 feet and sustained several injuries including one to his brain.  Matt was taken to HMNMH where he was helicoptered to UCLA PICU. On July 29, 2004, Matt turned 13.  He is still in a coma and is showing (minimal movement). Doctors do not know when Matt might wake up and what kind of deficit he may have.  Matt was to have surgery on August 16, 2004, to put back the piece of his skull that was removed in order to allow his brain to swell.

As awful as this is, it is compounded by the fact that Matt's mother Dena is currently suffering from cancer and just had surgery, due to complications she spent 10 days in the hospital and was just released two days ago. This has been very trying on the whole Szpak family. Greg, (Mr. Szpak) has been pulling double duty visiting Matt at UCLA and Dena at Tarzana Medical. 

While the family does have health insurance they will still incur a huge debt. Greg has not been to work since the day of the accident and Dena is not well enough to return to work yet. 

Viki McCall, a friend and neighbor established a special fund for Matt and his family. They do not have any income coming in and she doesn't want them to have to worry about that on top of everything else. We have opened a Matt Szpak Benevolent fund account at Washington Mutual in hopes that the community will reach out and help this great family.