Support Rutgers University’s defensive end, Eric LeGrand, who was left temporarily paralyzed after sustaining a spinal cord injury with an uncertain recovery

Rutgers defensive end, Eric LeGrand was left temporarily paralyzed after sustaining a spinal cord injury during the fourth quarter of their game against Army. LeGrand underwent emergency surgery the night of the injury. LeGrand’s family and fellow football teammates are left hopeful for Eric’s recovery.

As orthopaedic consultant and team physician at Rutgers University, Dr. Hosea offers knowledge on Eric LeGrand’s recent football injury.

The following excerpt from The Daily Targum is part of Dr. Hosea’s comments regarding LeGrand’s injury:

“Timothy Hosea, an associate clinical professor of orthopedics at Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School, explained the spinal cord is the nervous system that runs from a person’s head to the tailbone.

“It provides all the impulses that move all your extremities and the function of a lot of your internal organs,” he said.

“If you have any injury to the spinal cord where it is severed or significantly bruised, then you lose function.”
After suffering a spinal cord injury, the worst-case scenario is that the injured person could either qualify as a paraplegic or a quadriplegic.

“A paraplegic is someone who has lost function somewhere below their neck, which means their upper extremities work. Quadriplegic means someone does not have function of all four extremities,” he said. “Quadriplegic means damage happened to the cervical spine, which is the upper part of your spine.”

The first step in working with a spinal cord injury is to stabilize the spinal cord, which helps in preventing any further injury.

“That’s what they did on Saturday night,” he said. “Now it is basically a waiting game to see what happens and whether the spinal cord may heal.”

Head football coach, Greg Schiano said his team along with himself are confident the college junior will recover from his injury, but are still asking the community for help. Rutgers University started “The Eric LeGrand Believe Fund” in efforts to help support Eric and his family.

To support The Eric LeGrand Believe Fund, please visit: http://www.scarletknights.com/believe/

To read the article in entirety, please visit the following link:http://www.dailytargum.com/news/legrand-s-full-recovery-remains-uncertain-1.2374858