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Chinese gymnast fights on, awaits parents
Posted: Monday July 27, 1998 12:53 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- It was a simple vault she had done dozens of times before, but one she likely will never do again. On Thursday, 17-year-old Chinese gymnast Sang Lan remained in a Long Island hospital bed, unable to move her legs, learning about the severity of her condition from doctors who required interpreters to deliver their somber news. Sang's parents remained half a world away, trying to get the appropriate visas to see their injured child - a trip that was likely their first outside China, officials said. And an experimental treatment of Sang, the 1997 Chinese national vault champion, was expected to start once a frustrating language barrier was cleared. Sang, injured in a botched landing during a Tuesday warm-up for the Goodwill Games, was still in critical but stable condition at the Nassau County Medical Center. She was expected to receive treatment with a new synthetic protein designed to combat nerve damage later Thursday. But before that could start, hospital officials needed consent forms signed by a representative of China's delegation. The complicated forms were painstakingly read by interpreters to members of the Chinese delegation during the course of the day. "Because of liability concerns, everything must be explained, and nobody speaks English," hospital spokeswoman Shelley Lotenberg said. "We want to make sure they understand everything." Sang's parents were due in Saturday night, hours after planned fusion surgery to stabilize their daughter's spine. The family lives in the fairly remote town of Ningbo, three hours outside of Shanghai. Sang's father, a government housing worker, and her mother, a leather-factory employee, speak a different Chinese dialect and will need different translators to communicate with doctors, Lotenberg said. Hospital officials were already arranging that. The hospital staff, moved by the gymnast's courage, signed an enormous get-well card and put a stuffed white teddy bear in her room. China's ambassador to the United Nations, Qin Huasun, was among those who had sent flowers to the injured teen. The hospital's phones and fax machine were flooded with messages from people around the United States offering their prayers and encouragement for the gymnast, Lotenberg said. Sang was injured during a routine practice vault when she missed her landing and struck the mat with her head. The resulting fracture and dislocation of two neck vertebrae left her with no movement in her legs. Her prognosis hadn't changed from Wednesday, when doctors said it was unlikely that she would ever walk again. Once the gymnast's neck is stabilized, she would be able to return home in about a week, officials said.
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Sang Lan's prognosis hadn't changed from Wednesday, when doctors said it was unlikely that she would ever walk again 