Catastrophic illness or injury is an illness or injury which is expected to incapacitate the employee for an extended period of time and which creates a financial hardship because the employee has exhausted all of his/her accumulated leave. Catastrophic illness or injury is further defined as a debilitating illness or injury of an immediate family member or a qualified domestic partner, that results in the employee being required to take time off from work for an extended period to care for the family member, when this creates a financial hardship because the employee has exhausted all of his/her accumulated leave. Immediate family shall mean son or daughter including variation of step or foster, child of domestic partnership, spouse, parents, grandparents, brother or sister of the employee, or corresponding relative by affinity.