Oracle of Delphi
Bruce BostwickLex Luger Rehab is Progressing
June 18th 2008 10:50
Lex Luger former wrestling great.
Former professional wrestler, The Total Package Lex Luger was on a plane to San Francisco last October when he started having trouble moving his neck. By the time his plane landed in the Bay City he was in a lot of pain, but there wasn’t much indication of what was about to happen. He woke up in his hotel room only to find that he was paralyzed from the neck down. He managed to get to the floor somehow, but then was entirely helpless. He would lay there for about four hours before being found.
Doctors found massive swelling on his spine from the C6 to the T5 vertebrae. They felt the cause of the swelling was from the multiple disc injuries and bone fragments that had occurred during his football and wrestling career which spanned three decades. Luger was in ICU for a couple of weeks and was a total quadriplegic for over two months. He was transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta in November. He has been undergoing therapy there since that time. He also had a double hip replacement performed in February. Along the way he has had to relearn how to do just about everything in his life, dressing, showering, everything.
He tries to share his story of substance abuse and bad choices with anyone he can in hopes that he can helped them avoid the mistakes he made. He is a much different person then he was years ago, a fact that even his closest friends, like Sting, have attested to. He went as far to say if he hadn’t changed that Luger would have probably given up and been dead by now.
The thing that changed him was a course of events that starts with the substance abuse, but more directly the death of Elizabeth Hulette, better known as Miss Elizabeth. She was his girlfriend, and died of an accidental overdose in 2003 at the house they had shared. Luger was hit with thirteen felony counts of drug possession for the steroids, body-building drugs, pain medication, and anti-anxiety drugs that authorities found in a search of the home. He would later violate his probation and serve two months in the Cobb County jail. It will sound rather cliché, but during this brief prison stay he found God. At this point it is a very good thing that he did. He said, “I’ve never been stronger or richer in spirit or as a man as I am right now,” in an interview with John Hollis of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He now lives in an apartment across the street from the Shepherd Center, and is progressing well in his rehab. He now can shower and dress himself as well as some oher basic things, and can stand on his own for brief periods of time. Doctors have told him the swelling usually goes down in about six months, but no one know just how much function he will regain. They also say a complete recovery is a long shot.
It is sad that it took a stay in jail and becoming a quadriplegic for him to truly become “The Total Package” -- at least mentally and spiritually. I do believe he can do a lot of good in his present state of mind. I certainly hope his recovery continues on the right track. Good luck to you Lex.
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