Not sure if anyone else posted this... but this is the latest information I could find on Renee Junga breaking her back.
Marathon surgery for Junga
Melissa Ryan
August 27, 2006
AUSTRALIAN mountain biker Renee Junga, who had a 10-hour operation on her damaged spine on Friday, has been given a one-in-800 chance of regaining feeling and movement in her legs.
The 20-year-old Junga crashed last Tuesday while training in Rotorua for the mountain bike world championships.
She broke her C1 and C2 vertebrae, two ribs, her sternum, and almost severed her spinal cord at the T6 vertebra.
While doctors were pleased with the surgery Junga remains in intensive care in Auckland City Hospital her family has been told that there is only a remote chance of Junga regaining sensation below the ribs.
"The surgeons say they are happy with the way the operation went," said her mother, Sallie Howie. "They put rods and screws in to straighten her back and fused the two broken neck bones.
"They've told us there is a one-in-800 chance she may regain feeling below T6, but that is a chance and doctors really don't know why some people with spinal injuries regain feeling and others don't. There isn't really anything more they can do surgically."
With her rib and sternum injuries healing well, doctors hope to have Junga sitting up within days.
Barring complications, the Queenslander will return to Australia in two to three weeks, and head straight into rehabilitation.
Marathon surgery for Junga
Melissa Ryan
August 27, 2006
AUSTRALIAN mountain biker Renee Junga, who had a 10-hour operation on her damaged spine on Friday, has been given a one-in-800 chance of regaining feeling and movement in her legs.
The 20-year-old Junga crashed last Tuesday while training in Rotorua for the mountain bike world championships.
She broke her C1 and C2 vertebrae, two ribs, her sternum, and almost severed her spinal cord at the T6 vertebra.
While doctors were pleased with the surgery Junga remains in intensive care in Auckland City Hospital her family has been told that there is only a remote chance of Junga regaining sensation below the ribs.
"The surgeons say they are happy with the way the operation went," said her mother, Sallie Howie. "They put rods and screws in to straighten her back and fused the two broken neck bones.
"They've told us there is a one-in-800 chance she may regain feeling below T6, but that is a chance and doctors really don't know why some people with spinal injuries regain feeling and others don't. There isn't really anything more they can do surgically."
With her rib and sternum injuries healing well, doctors hope to have Junga sitting up within days.
Barring complications, the Queenslander will return to Australia in two to three weeks, and head straight into rehabilitation.