Help the Alokla family after Ahmad’s 2 story fall

Hi, my name is Vickey, and I am raising funds for our family friends the Aloklas. My father, Mike Hastings, met Ahmad Alokla when Mike was teaching at Austin Career Institute. Ahmad was one of his favorite students in the HVAC technician course at ACI, and he was proud to see Ahmad quickly progress to earning his HVAC contractor's license. Ahmad is a great guy, and his wife, Manal, is a sweet lady, but they and their six kids are facing a really tough time right now after Ahmad took a two-story fall onto hard concrete.

A little bit about the Alokla's and their journey to the United States

Ahmad has been working hard to build a life in America for his family after helping safeguard the U.S. embassy in Syria. In 2016, after a neighbor’s house was bombed, Ahmad and his wife Manal decided it was time to leave their home country of Syria. Late at night, with their four young children and one on the way - Hassan, Baker, Mahmoud, Omar, and Hussin – they left Syria for Lebanon while trying to ultimately make the move to the United States. Thankfully, Ahmad’s friends at the U.S. embassy were able to help bring the family to the United States.

Ahmad, his wife, Manal, their six children, Hassan, Baker, Mahmoud, Omar, Hussin, and Sarah, who came after their move to the U.S., have called Texas home since 2016. With a family of 7 with children that range in ages from 4 to 17, Ahmad and Manal have worked hard to create a better life for them.

Ahmad worked hard at entry-level jobs like HEB and Uber after their move when he was inspired to start an HVAC career. He attended Austin Career Institute and became an HVAC technician before going on to earn his HVAC Contractor’s License. He branched off on his own to start CentralPro with the aim of having his sons Hassan and Baker follow soon in his footsteps.

Ahmad's terrible fall

His new career as an HVAC contractor with his own business took a tragic turn after he fell two stories from the top of a ladder onto a concrete path. With a collapsed lung, broken ribs, cracked skull, and other injuries, the doctors were frankly amazed he survived the fall. He was working alone that day, and he was lucky someone saw the fall and called EMS right away. When the ambulance came, he was having trouble breathing. Everyone at the scene said he would not have made it if it weren’t for the quick response.

Ahmad is lucky to still be with us, but he now faces a hard road ahead as he recovers from his injuries. He faces months of rehabilitation. As of this posting, the family is not sure if he will have permanent brain damage or not.

Ahmad’s loving family is taking it one day at a time as they watch him fight to come back.

And the aftermath...

When the accident happened, Manal and the kids were visiting family and friends in Egypt while Ahmad was working to move the family from a smaller home to one better suited to their large family. The morning of the accident, Ahmad had been talking to his family about that move. By the end of the day, Manal and the kids were facing a journey back to Ahmad’s side that would take them a week and a half before they would see him again.

As soon as they arrived, Manal went straight to the hospital to sign critical paperwork that would let doctors perform surgeries to put in a feeding tube and a breathing tube. Ahmad is now in stable condition and faces a long stay at the hospital. Manal visits him twice a day, and his children manage to visit several times a week. It’s a challenge to raise six school-aged children while helping his recovery. The older children are supporting Mom by helping the younger kids manage this difficult time and by keeping the household running.

What the Alokala's face now

Ahmad and his family need help. As the head of the family’s small HVAC business, much of their income is gone. All of Ahmad’s and Manal‘s children are school-aged, and they are facing his mounting medical bills. The family is grateful for any donations.