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Doctor: Gymnast unlikely to walk again Experimental drug to be used in treatment
Posted: Wednesday July 22, 1998 09:54 PM
UNIONDALE, New York (AP) -- An experimental drug has been approved to treat paralyzed Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, who suffered a spinal cord injury at the Goodwill Games. Dr. Vincent Leone, attending physician at the Nassau County Medical Center, who treated Sang and expressed concern that she might not walk again, said Wednesday that the drug Sygen was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat the gymnast. The drug is a synthetic protein designed for nerve damage and structual repair in paralysis cases and has not received complete clearance for use in the United States by the FDA. The Nassau County Medical Center made an emergency application to obtain the drug on a compassionate basis. "It has yet to prove completely successful," Leone said, "so I have an obligation to the patient to remain skeptical. But we're willing to look at any kind of treatment to help Sang Lan walk again." Earlier, Leone, an orthopedic spine surgeon, was asked if the 17-year-old would walk again. "It's fair to say that it would be unlikely," he said, adding only certain parts of her spinal cord work. "That's better than a complete injury when you have permanent paralysis. Her prognosis is still guarded. We expect some improvement. The extent I cannot comment on. She's young with good healing potential. It's too soon for a prognosis. ... It is a devastating injury, a violent injury." Sang's condition remained unchanged on Wednesday. "She has no ability to move her legs," Dr. Brock Schnebel, chief medical officer of the games, said Wednesday. "She has some function in her upper extremities consistent with the level of her injury," he said. "It was a tragic injury with an unpredictable prognosis." Goodwill Games officials were making arrangements for Sang's parents to fly from China to join their daughter. They were expected to arrive Friday or Saturday. Sang was hurt while practicing the vault before the start of Tuesday night's competition. She was attempting a routine forward vault when she lost control in the air and crashed head-first on the mat. Emergency workers rushed to her and she was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Schnebel diagnosed the injury as a fracture-dislocation of two cervical spine vertebrae. 'She was placed in traction and her spinal column realigned,' he said. 'There is no pressure on the cord at this time but there is swelling on the cord.' Sang faces spinal fusion surgery with implants to stabilize her spine and prevent the bones from sliding into each other. Schnebel said Sang, a junior high school student who was the Chinese national champion in the vault last year, helped doctors as they treated her. "She was brave and courageous," he said. "She answered all our questions and never complained, although this is a painful injury to go through." Chinese officials who spent the night with the gymnast said the accident occurred on a maneuver Sang had done many times and she did not know what went wrong. Tu Mingde, secretary general of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said other gymnasts from his country would remain in the Goodwill competition. Peter Kormann, coordinator of the U.S. men's team, was across the floor at the Nassau Coliseum and saw the accident. "It was a warmup vault, not a high-level, difficult vault," he said. "She got a little too much rotation, a little too much spring. It was not a difficult maneuver. It was a mistake." When executed properly, the vault would have ended with Sang landing on her feet. Kormann said she was caught in between and had to make a split-second decision to fall on her back or try and recover and get to her feet. She wound up in the middle. "In that situation, your body is in space and you don't feel quite right," Kormann said. "You feel there's something wrong. It's just a feeling that a gymnast understands." Kathy Scanlan said there have been no catastrophic injuries in competition during the four years she has been president of USA Gymnastics. "We've had three serious ones in training, but none on the vault," she said. Scanlan did not question the safety of the arena or equipment. "Accidents do occur," she said. "This was simply an accident, not the result of unsafe conditions. What's terrible is that it happened on something as simple as this. This was the simplest thing she could be doing."
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