Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004060028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joe Kennedy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dr. Barth Green, a neurosurgeon at the University of Miami Medical Center, operated for 6.5 hours on Allen, whose career was ended by the wreck. Green rebuilt a section of Allen's spinal column in his neck and relieved pressure on his spinal cord. In a separate procedure he repaired Allen's right thumb, which had been dislocated in therapy after the crash.
Allen, who wrestled as Magnum T.A., was the subject of a feature story in the Roanoke Times & World-News on Monday.
Through a spokesman Green described the surgery as successful, with no complications. It is too soon to determine whether the procedure will ease Allen's pain or restore some degree of function to his right arm and right leg.
"His spirits are terrific," Allen's wife, Tracey, said Wednesday by telephone from Miami. "There are no results as of now, but they expect to see some shortly. Nothing is guaranteed. But the compression that they relieved was a lot more than they ever expected, once they got in there."
Allen sat up in bed Wednesday morning and later moved to a chair, where he spent three hours. His throat was sore from the tubes inserted during the surgery. He was eager to get off the intravenous tubes and start eating, his wife said.
Tracey Allen said Green wanted her husband to start walking on Thursday.
"He'll probably be in [the hospital] until Saturday, and then the doctor wants to get him into some really intense therapy, which may be a couple of weeks. Or it may be more than a couple of weeks. We've got to play it by ear."
by CNB