Community Steps Up to Help Disabled Sag Harbor Mother

The Sag Harbor community will come together on Feb. 3, as it often does to support one of its residents in a time of need. Friends of Amanda Rodriguez have organized at to help offset her medical related bills from a rare, debilitating disease that has left her struggling to take care of her young daughter.

In the spring of 2008, Rodriguez injured her ankle. Her injury was misdiagnosed not once, but twice, as a sprain. Unknown to Rodriguez, a hairline fracture was slowly and stealthily depriving her ankle's talus bone of blood.

One night while walking, Rodriguez said she felt excruciating pain and suddenly could not take another step. She returned to the doctor for an MRI, and it was determined that she'd developed avascular necrosis. Her ankle bone, without its necessary blood supply, had collapsed.

Ankle injuries are notoriously difficult to repair and there is little research into avascular necrosis, and even fewer answers. Making matters worse, her insurance policy did not cover the equipment she required, such as crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, or orthotic braces.

Due to the rarity of the condition, she was forced to commute weekly to New York City - at $100 per trip for four months - to find a surgeon that could work with her. She was then told that her only option would be to fuse her ankle together at a permanent right angle. 

Several surgeries later, she is finally seeing some progress. However, she is still unable to work and is in dire straits, while trying to care for her young daughter.

"At my last doctor's appointment, I found that the second ankle fusion worked," Rodriguez explained, "I'd been waiting to hear that news. Now that the ankle has healed, I can get the external fixator - it's kind of like an erector set that runs from my heel to my knee - taken off in February. Then I can start physical therapy."

"I haven't walked since June of 2009, so it's going to be a long haul," she continued, "but I will walk again."

Her friends and the Sag Harbor community have stepped up numerous times during Rodriguez' years of struggle, something she said has "restored her faith in humanity."

"I grew up here," she said, "so I know what greatness can come out of a small community. But when it's all for you - I mean, it's just amazing."

Rodriguez's longtime friends Simon and Catherine Bromberg and Amber Tagliasacchi-Miller are now planning an even bigger community event to assist with Rodriguez' ever-increasing expenses.

"Simon has known Amanda his whole life - I've known her for years," Catherine Bromberg said, "so we talked with our friend Amber, who manages Il Capuccino, about trying to do something to help Amanda."

That something has now taken the form of a big benefit event, to be held at the restaurant (Catherine Bromberg jokingly dubbed it "Amandapalooza.") The organizers have put together hors d'oeuvres and drink specials, a 50/50 drawing, and a Chinese raffle with numerous prizes donated by many of the businesses in town. Local rock-jazz-fusion band The Realm - also friends of Rodriguez - will perform, and are donating their time and music to help her cause.

Rallying the community together was, according to the Brombergs, a fairly easy task.

"She's a very good person," Catherine Bromberg said, explaining how, even while Rodriguez was in pain, she was always asking how she could help you. "She's just a good soul," Mrs. Bromberg concluded.

"She's a local girl, she's well-known, and she's worked for a lot of the people who are now helping her," Simon Bromberg agreed, "and our community is always ready to help when people are in need, which is a wonderful thing."