The small private plane carrying David Michelberg had crash-landed in a Paso Robles vineyard. Michelberg's co-worker and the plane's pilot, Yaron Eckshte, struggled to control the plane after it lost power. Rachael Michelberg says the accident is still under investigation, but Eckshte told her a cylinder blew up, causing the power loss.

"The plane basically made a nose dive," says Rachel Michelberg, whose family has lived in the Willow Glen for 10 years.

Both men survived the crash, but Michelberg, 45, is suffering from permanent brain damage and has lost sight in one eye.

"The problem with brain injuries is a person can keep improving for years," Michelberg says, "making the injury greatly misunderstood."

To bring greater awareness to the community, Michelberg, an opera singer and former cantorial soloist at Temple Emanu-El in the Rose Garden, is putting together a fundraiser in honor of her husband to benefit those suffering from brain injuries.

"I was so traumatized and in need of support after the accident," she says. "My friends said I needed to rehearse to keep strong."

Singing has helped her cope with the dramatic changes that have occurred in her life since the accident. Through this experience she has also learned that there is limited publicity or information about brain injuries.

Her husband requires round-the-clock care and is currently living in a facility outside of Davis that specializes in post-acute head injury rehabilitation. He will soon be moving closer to home to a long-term facility, Learning Services, in Gilroy.

The family, however, struggles to make sense of what has happened, Michelberg says. Children Joshua, 7, and Hannah, 8, are trying to comprehend what has happened to their father, and why he is not at home.

On a recent visit to the hospital, Michelberg says her husband taught their son how to play chess.

"He can beat you at backgammon, which is what makes the injury so difficult," she says, "because his language and speech abilities are not impaired, but everything else is very childlike, and his short-term memory is not accurate."

Michelberg says this type of injury does not bring closure, and by raising funds she hopes to raise awareness of this little-publicized problem.

The chamber music event will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church,
505 E. Charleston Road in Palo Alto on March 11 at 7 p.m. The performance will include music by Berlioz, Bizet, Delibes and Dvorak. Admission is free, but donations will benefit the Brain Injury Association of America. Educational kits will be available at the performance,

For more information about the California Brain Injury Association, visit www.biausa.org.