Far from home, woman finds friends in all the right places

Aizhamal Akhayeva has a quick answer to how long she had wanted to visit the United States.

"All my life," said the 21-year-old woman from Kazakhstan, a country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union.

She arrived in Virginia Beach with fellow college students in May on an exchange visitor visa, which allowed her to work for three months and travel for one. She worked some 50 hours a week as a restaurant dishwasher and a hotel housekeeper, eagerly anticipating a month of travel in September.

But on Aug. 4, while riding a bike to shop on a rare afternoon off, she was struck by a car at the intersection of Mediterranean Avenue and 22nd Street.

What followed was outside the script of her plans: A neck injury. A concussion. A leg broken in two places.

She needed six surgeries and has spent nearly two months at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital. Her medical bills are near $200,000 and rising.

A requirement of her work visa was to have health insurance, which she had purchased before she arrived for $350. But an executive with the insurance company in Moscow sent her a notice denying payment, saying she had acted "unlawfully."

A police report showed she had run a red light.

She asked that the insurance company not be named in this story, for fear of reprisal.

She is appealing the decision. Casey Slamin, program director for InterExchange, the company that sponsored her, said it also is appealing the decision on her behalf.

Even so, the policy covers about $50,000, just a fraction of what she owes.

Akhayeva's dream trip has taken a detour, but the people who have rallied around her have only deepened her appreciation for her first visit to America.

Howard Mathues, who rented her a room in his Virginia Beach house, sped to the emergency room as soon as a police officer called to tell him she had been in an accident. The 56-year-old man visits nearly every day, helping her work through the maze of insurance appeals and visa extension paperwork.

Several of her fellow exchange students come to see her in the hospital after they get off their hotel and restaurant jobs near midnight. Co-workers from the restaurant where she worked - people she had known for only a few months - held a fundraiser for her. And a woman she met through Mathues has offered to let her stay at her home after she is released from the hospital, perhaps in two weeks.

"My parents, my relatives, my friends, they all say I am lucky because there are so many kind people around me," Akhayeva said from her hospital bed. Last week, she started physical rehabilitation, her leg and arm wrapped in bandages and her neck in a brace.

A neck injury required surgery to fuse some vertebrae, and doctors want her to stay in Virginia Beach for several months to assure proper healing and minimize any chance of paralysis.

Though she worries about missing college coursework - she wants to become an English teacher or translator - she can think of a positive aspect to her extended stay. "My English will be perfect, and that's my life's aim."

Slamin said that while most foreign students on work visas avoid injury while here, accidents do happen, which is why the U.S. Department of State has guidelines for health insurance.

The insurance must provide medical benefits of at least $50,000, plus $10,000 in coverage to send the person home if he or she gets sick or has an accident. The rules also say the insurance "shall not unreasonably exclude coverage for perils inherent to the activities of the exchange program."

Slamin said that exchange visitors, because they often work in tourist areas, are most likely to be involved in one type of accident: getting hit while riding a bike or walking. "It's something we try to raise awareness of before they get here," he said.

Andy Weddle, vice president of revenue for Sentara Healthcare hospitals, said that insurance policies - both here and abroad - vary widely. He has dealt with policies that deny payment if the person was drinking or under the influence of alcohol, which was not the case with Akhayeva.

Still, denying coverage for running a red light is unusual. In this case, he said, Sentara Virginia Beach General will try to collect on the policy. If that doesn't work, the hospital will help Akhayeva apply for its charity coverage.

Akhayeva said her parents call every few days. She also sends e-mails to a neighbor, who delivers them to her parents and four brothers and sisters, who are all younger than her.

Akhayeva said they are worried, but she has calmed them by describing how much people have helped her.

"I want to go home, but I also want to be healthy. I don't want to go like this," she said, glancing down at her neck brace and bandaged arm and leg.

This week, the other students from her country are returning to Kazakhstan. Mathues, too, will be leaving Virginia at the end of the month because he only lives here during the summer.

But he said he feels confident she'll be in good hands with the network of friends she has managed to knit in just a few months.

Akhayeva remembers that before she traveled here, someone told her: "Any American is your friend. If you have a problem, you can ask anyone, and they will help you."

Elizabeth Simpson, (757) 446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com