Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury while making a tackle during last Saturday’s game against Army, causing him to be paralyzed from the neck down.
The junior defense tackle had surgery to relieve compression at the C3-C4 level of his vertebrae at Hackensack University Medical Center, but there hasn’t been much news regarding his condition since the school announced the injury.
On Monday, Coach Greg Schiano said he would provide information when appropriate.
“Here’s the situation: This is going to be a long, long hard road back and there’s going to be speculation and a lot of friends and people who care,” Schiano said during his weekly conference call with the Big East Conference.
“I think it’s important that we stay away from those kinds of things,” Schiano said. “I think there’s so much out there and a lot of it is misguided. Right now, when it’s appropriate, we will make an announcement if there’s any kind of change in his condition. But it’s not going to be a day-to-day thing.”
Schiano has been authorized by LeGrand’s family to handle the dispersement of information, and on Thursay he reported there was “no news to share” on LeGrand’s condition.
LeGrand was injured during the fourth quarter of the Scarlet Knights’ 23-20 overtime win over Army while making a tackle on Malcolm Brown. He was treated by medical and emergency personnel while he lay on the turf.
According Dr. Roy Vingan, a neurosurgeon associated with the hospital, patients suffering from spinal-cord injuries such as LeGrand’s would be receiving “very attentive care” at this point in the recovery process. Although he couldn’t speak about LeGrand’s case specifically, he did provide some information on spinal cord injuries in general.
There are two types of spinal-cord injuries: complete and incomplete. A complete spinal-cord injury is irreversible, while an incomplete spinal-cord patient has a good chance of showing functional improvement.
“Without commenting on Eric’s completeness or incompleteness at this point in time, historically you can look at patients like (actor) Christopher Reeves, who was a C2 level, or (New York City police officer) Joe McDonald, who was a C3 level,” Vingan said. “Those were high-profile patients who basically had enough money and family to support them for a great deal of time and they were tremendously in need of care the rest of the way.”
“Someone who is a C4 and above has a far more difficult road to travel than someone who’s down at C7. That’s generally the case for people who have complete injuries at C4 vs. at C7.”
Vingan said spinal cord patients who exhibit no evidence of neurological function below the area of injury within 24 to 72 hours do not make a significant recovery.
Meanwhile, LeGrand’s teammates are gearing up for this weekend’s game against Pittsburgh. “We do it the way Eric would’ve wanted us to do it,” senior defensive tackle Charlie Noonan said. “Eric loved football so much and he’d want us to focus on Pitt and that’s what we’re going to do.”
To honor LeGrand, Rutgers players have put a sticker on the front of their helmets with the word “believe.”
Watch Eric LeGrand injury video below.