Wish come true

Leonardo DiCaprio visits paralyzed gymnast

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Posted: Thursday July 30, 1998 11:34 PM

Sang will learn to optimize her physical skills and enhance her transition back to everyday activities AP

NEW YORK (AP) - Paralyzed gymnast Sang Lan was moved to a Manhattan rehabilitation clinic Thursday, the first step in what her family hopes will be a return to competition.

Doctors, however, say she may even never walk again.

Hours after arriving at Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Institute by ambulance from Long Island, the 17-year-old from China was visited by actor Leonardo DiCaprio. She had asked to meet the star of 'Titanic' in the days after her accident during practice at the Goodwill Games.

The actor's private visit was announced in a one-sentence statement released by a public relations firm on his behalf and confirmed by hospital spokesman Mel Granick, who said the pair met for about an hour.

To prepare for the 23-year-old star's visit, the young woman even learned a few words of English. She can say, "Hi, how are you?"

The teen-ager broke her neck a week ago during a warm-up vault at the Nassau Coliseum. She underwent surgery Saturday at Nassau County Medical Center but has little sensation from the chest down. Doctors have discounted some toe movement as an involuntary twitch.

Still, her spirits were soaring.

"I am so happy. I feel no more pain in my neck," she told a Chinese reporter earlier this week at the hospital in East Meadow.

At Mount Sinai, she will benefit from 'one of the few model spinal cord injury centers in the United States,' said Dr. Brock Schnebel, chief medical officer for the Goodwill Games. However, he said in a statement, "there has been no change in Sang Lan's neurological condition."

In addition to physical treatment - including an experimental nerve-building drug - the teen-ager will get moral support from Chinese staff doctors and students at the hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

"We're going to translate for her. And we can give her another kind of care - make her feel she's not alone," Dr. Jian Dong said.

For the next several weeks, she will learn to "optimize her physical skills ... and enhance her transition back to everyday activities," Granick said in a statement.

It was here that New York Jets defensive end Dennis Byrd was treated for a paralyzing spinal cord injury he suffered during a game six years ago. His recovery was termed "miraculous."

To buoy her spirits at the center, Sang also brought a treasured item: a bulletin board adorned with DiCaprio's picture and cards from hundreds of well-wishers. Sang was disappointed when told the movie 'Titanic' wasn't yet available on video, but Paramount Pictures rushed to the rescue, sending a studio copy.

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