|
|
|
 |
|
|
Paralyzed gymnast's parents begin sad journey to her bedside
Posted: Friday July 24, 1998 05:47 PM
BEIJING (AP) -- On top of the neatly folded clothes in the new suitcase, the parents of gymnast Sang Lan lovingly placed a portrait of their only child, her head tilted with silky black hair flowing over her shoulders. Their first trip abroad will be a sorrowful one -- to the bedside of the 17-year-old daughter, left paralyzed by a botched landing in a practice vault Tuesday at the Goodwill Games in New York. Tears rolled down the cheeks of her mother, Chen Xiufeng, as she thought about her daughter's future. "I just dare not imagine it," she said in an interview Friday, the day before leaving for New York. Sang, the 1997 Chinese national vault champion, struck the mat with her head. She fractured and dislocated two neck vertebrae, leaving her with no movement in her legs. Doctors at Nassau County Medical Center on Long Island said it was unlikely she would walk again. Her father, Sang Shisheng, said they learned their daughter had been hurt when they turned on the TV to see her compete and heard the announcer say instead that she had been carried away on a stretcher. That meant "it had to be serious," Sang Shisheng said. "We were shocked." While injuries are part of sports, "I never expected anything this terrible, not once," he said. Sang last spoke to her parents by phone a few days before she left for the United States. They have not been in touch since her accident. They said they were very proud of Sang's accomplishments but also were filled with remorse over not having seen more of her as she grew up. Like most Chinese gymnasts, she began training very young -- at age 6. After two years in a sports school in their hometown of Ningbo, Sang was good enough to be accepted by another school away from home where her parents got to see her just once a month, the father said. Six years ago, she was picked for national team training in Beijing, 740 miles away from Ningbo. Since then, parents and daughter have seen each other just three times, most recently in October, he said.
"How can we ever make it up to her?" the father said. "She was separated from her mother and father at such a young age, with no parental love." "Thinking back, I do have some regrets," he said. The father added that his wife "doesn't want to go on living" if their daughter's injuries prove permanent. "The biggest worry is that they won't be able to cure her," he said. Asked about the experimental nerve drug Sang was being treated with, the father said he had "total trust" in U.S. doctors and was sure they would give his daughter "the best medicine." They are due to arrive in New York on Saturday night, hours after planned fusion surgery to stabilize their daughter's spine. Sang's parents speak with the heavy accent of their native Ningbo, a city near Shanghai on China's east coast. He is a housing management officer, she works in a steel factory. Together, they earn about $150 a month. Goodwill Games officials are paying for all travel expenses and government officials in China and the United States expedited paperwork for their journey. "In terms of our organization, we will do all we can to make sure that Sang Lan and her family are accommodated in the best possible way," said Harvey Schiller, president of Turner Sports, the organizers of the games. "We are not out to exploit this. Our focus is on today. We want to get her the best possible care," Schiller said Friday in New York. He said the top executives at Turner Sports' parent company of Time-Warner Inc., including chairman Gerard Levin and Goodwill Games founder Ted Turner, "are united in support of her." "You can be assured that the corporation, along with USA Gymnastics and the international gymnastics federation, will do all within our power to see that her future is secure," he said.
| |||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||
