Chinese gymnast starts rehabilitation

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Posted: Monday July 27, 1998 10:25 PM

Sang Lan's parents, Sang Shisheng (left) and Chen Xiufeng sit together before an interview Monday AP

EAST MEADOW, New York. (AP) -- The father of the young Chinese gymnast paralyzed in a practice fall at the Goodwill Games said Monday he is confident his daughter will compete again.

Sang Shisheng and his wife, Chen Xiufeng, gave their first interview since arriving in the United States on Saturday, four days after 17-year-old Sang Lan landed head-first while practicing for the vault.

"When I first saw my daughter laying on the sick bed, my heart was so hurt that she looked at me and said, `Mother, don't worry about me because the doctor here and the medicine here is very, very good. You have to have confidence. You have to have courage to allow me to recover,'" Chen said through an interpreter.

Sang Shisheng said his daughter was concerned only with others during that first visit.

"When my wife saw my daughter, she started crying," he said through an interpreter. "So my tears also dropped and my daughter saw us crying and she said: `Mother, Father, don't cry, be strong, OK?' She asked about the results of the other gymnasts. She also asked her mother, `When you come over to America, who takes care of your work? Be strong.'"

Sang Shisheng was certain his daughter would compete again, let alone walk.

"I am sure she will be back to the competition circle because she is very courageous and with the excellent medical [care], the doctors and hospitals in America, I am sure she will one day be back to the contest," he said.

But Sang Lan's doctors on Monday dismissed earlier speculation that she had regained feeling in her toes.

"There is no change in her neurological exam," Dr. Brock Schnebel, head physician of the Goodwill Games, told The Associated Press after discussing treatment options with the parents.

Dr. Vincent Leone points on a model to the section Sang Lan's spine that was stabilized by a titanium plate AP

Schnebel said Sang was on pain-killers but slept well after a full day spent with her family and other visitors.

"It's hard to shut her up and keep her calm, actually," he said of the woman described by her parents as "athletic and courageous."

Schnebel said Sang's parents have not decided whether to move her back to China and continue the treatment with the experimental nerve-building drug she is now receiving, or to start her rehabilitation in the United States.

She could be ready to fly as early as next week, he said.

"I think her young age makes treatment easier," Schnebel said.

Sang, China's 1997 national vault champion, had seven hours of surgery Saturday at Nassau County Medical Center to stabilize bones in her spine that shattered last Tuesday when she fell.

On Sunday night, she had other visitors besides her parents.

"The team manager, the trainer and the coach and all the members of the team went to see her, and many of them, they cannot hold themselves, they cried a little bit," Sang Shisheng said. "But Sang Lan, she did not have even one drop of tears. Rather, she asked her fellow gymnasts what medals did they get; did you get gold medal or what? And, also asked the coach: `Why this time I failed?'"

In her room is a Beanie Baby dressed in the uniform of the U.S. Postal Service. It was sent to her by some of the people handling the hundreds of letters she received.

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