Long Beach State University Athletics
Hawkins Appreciates the Prayers
1/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | General
|
'Hawk" Appreciates the Prayers Former Lynwood High, Long Beach State, NBA and Long Beach Jam player - and all-around really nice human being - Juaquin Hawkins is making "great progress," according to his wife, after suffering a stroke on Jan. 1 while in Melbourne as a member of an Australian Professional League team. Kim Hawkins, who played basketball at LBSU under her maiden name of Barfield, is with her husband and their three daughters, Skyy (5), Emya (3) and Kelis (1) while Hawkins recovers in Queensland, where the Gold Coast Blaze team he is under contract to is based. Hawkins, who joined the team in July, "was in Melbourne, on a road trip with the team, when he complained of not feeling well," Kim Hawkins said by e-mail. Medical personnel initially thought Hawkins might be suffering from dehydration, but, when Hawkins (who played in the 1993-97 seasons at LBSU) complained of numbness on his right side and had difficulties speaking and understanding what was being said to him, "the doctors ordered a CT (Computer Topography) scan and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) exam and they confirmed that Juaquin had suffered a stroke," she said. Since leaving the Melbourne hospital and returning to Queensland on Jan. 6, "Juaquin has been working with a speech pathologist and a physiologist, while being examined by a neurologist and cardiologist (in an effort to find the cause of the stroke)," Kim Hawkins added. She has been told that her husband is expected to make a "complete recovery during a six-to-eight week period (following the stroke). We should be able to return (to Southern California) in mid-February." For now, he is still curious as to why the two nickel-size lesions formed on the left side of his brain, apparently resulting in the stroke. "I've never smoked or drank and I've been healthy all of my life," he said, also by e-mail, "so the doctors don't really have any clues right now. "But things happen and you can't let them bring you down." He said he wanted to "thank all of my friends (in Southern California) who have called me and offered their prayers. And my team here and the fans have been very supportive. And it's been great to have my wife and three beautiful daughters here with me." Hawkins, who signed a two-year contract with the Blaze last summer, plans on being back in action with the team next season. "And, when I get home, I'll begin planning for my Hawk Hoops Youth Camps (his popular instructional camps for boys and girls, held both in Long Beach and Lakewood, and in South Orange County) next summer, too," he added. Friends of Hawkins who'd like to drop him a note can do so via his e-mail address (jayha12987@aol.com). |
