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Salman Shatara opened Fat Sam's Sub Station in March 1990 at 1154 11th Ave. South in Birmingham, Ala. (Left photo by Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com; right photo courtesy of the Shatara family)

For the past 26 years, Salman "Fat Sam" Shatara has kept UAB students, athletes, faculty and staff fed with gyros, Reubens, muffulettas and Philly cheesesteaks at his Southside deli Fat Sam's Sub Station.

Now, the UAB community is returning the favor and rallying to support Shatara, who has been in the trauma intensive care unit at UAB Hospital since suffering major injuries in a car wreck three weeks ago, on April 8.

The accident left the 55-year-old Shatara with a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and severe respiratory problems.

"It's very slow and steady, but he is recovering," Shatara's oldest son, Mitri, says. "And he's expected to make a full recovery. It's just very slow. . . .

"He is currently awake and alert now -- minus, obviously, pain medication. But he cannot talk because he's got a (tracheotomy) on his throat and it rests on his vocal chords. So he's not able to talk back to us, but he's able to nod and mouth words."

In the meantime, Shatara's medical bills continue to mount, and while the family does have insurance, out-of-pocket expenses have so far topped $30,000 and keep growing every day he's hospitalized.

To defray some of those expenses, Shatara's family and friends have set up the Fat Sam Recovery Fund on the emergency fundraising website Generosity.com. The fund has raised a little more than $8,000 -- or 16 percent of its $50,000 goal -- in its first 11 days.

UAB engineering professor Alan Eberhardt, a close friend and fishing buddy of Shatara's, is the organizer of the fund.

"(Shatara) is a great friend of many of us at UAB, and a loyal supporter of UAB Athletics for over 25 years," Eberhardt writes on the recovery fund page. "I, with the blessing of the Shatara family, am seeking to raise funds to help Sam and his family recovery from this tragic event."

'We are very proud'

The Shataras -- Salman and his wife, Annette, and Mitri and his younger brother, also named Salman -- aren't accustomed to asking for help.

"The biggest thing for us is, we are very proud," Mitri Shatara says. "So accepting help is a slightly difficult thing. So for me, it was difficult to go forth with doing this Generosity.com recovery fund.

"My father is obviously unaware of it," he adds. "We haven't told him about it because of everything else. But really, anything that we are given helps. . . . If people come in for a $9.75 sandwich, that helps."

The outpouring of support for his father has been gratifying, Mitri Shatara says.

"I was truly amazed by the outreach, especially when we set up that website and it got going and just the immediate rush of phone calls, text messages, emails," he says. "It was astonishing to see how many people not only cared about my dad but knew my dad. It's been a very enlightening situation."

A handwritten note taped to the front counter at Fat Sam's Sub Station asks customers to contribute to the Fat Sam Recovery Fund. (Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)

Salman Shatara, who moved to Birmingham from San Francisco, opened Fat Sam's Sub Station in March 1990 in a little retail center tucked away on the southwestern fringe of the UAB campus at 1154 11th Avenue South.

"He got here, and he was kind of told he might not be able to make it in the restaurant business," Mitri Shatara recalls. "And we've been here ever since."

The sandwich shop is strewn with UAB basketball and football memorabilia -- including photographs, newspaper clippings and bobble heads of Blazer greats -- and the menu includes a UAB-themed Dragon's Delight roast beef sandwich and a Dragon's Belly chicken roll-up.

"To me, looking from the inside out, the (UAB) community has always loved us," Mitri Shatara, a UAB student himself, says. "And for sure, my dad has always loved the UAB community and loves UAB -- athletics, academics, all of it."

'When's Sam coming back in?'

Mitri Shatara -- who, like his younger brother, grew up making sandwiches and working the register at Fat Sam's -- has come back to pitch in and help "our two fabulous employees" Vidal Hernandez and Melva Tercero keep the shop open in his father's absence.

"People come in and ask, 'When's Sam coming back in?'" Mitri Shatara says. "And two days later, they come back in and ask again."

The younger Shatara can't answer that for sure, but he says it's a question of when, not if.

Several years ago, Salman Shatara had a hip replacement, and he was back at his sandwich shop less than two weeks later, his son says.

"Here's the thing about my father: Whenever he gets out of the hospital, he'll probably be home for one whole day and then he'll be here, because that's my dad," Mitri Shatara says. "We'll probably have to drive him a little bit at first just because he's been laid up in that hospital bed for so long, but he'll sit at the register and run the register. . . .

"So I tell people, as soon as he gets better, he'll be back. It could be two weeks. It could be a month. But as soon as he's out of that hospital, I guarantee you, he'll be back."

Fat Sam's Sub Station is at 1154 11th Ave. South in Birmingham. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. To contribute to the Fat Sam Recovery Fund, go here.