June 1, 1995 Newspaper Report

The actor's headlong fall during a weekend horse-riding accident in Culpepper, Va., caused multiple fractures to his first and second cervical vertebrae and also damaged his spinal cord, said Dr. John Jane, a University of VIrginia neurosurgeon. Reeve, 42, may require surgery soon to stabilize his upper spine, Jane said.

While Jane said it is "premature" to speculate on Reeve's long-term prognosis, experts painted a grim picture.

"It is a devastating injury, and yet the person is fully aware of what is happening," said Edward Benzel, chief of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Cameron Huckell, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University medical school, said Wednesday, "Only patients who have been rapidly resuscitated survive the initial event and then have a 60 to 70 percent mortality rate at one week."

The star's publicist, Lisa Kasteler in Los Angeles, said Wednesday that Reeve is conscious and had been able to communicate with relatives. He was listed in serious condition at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

Dr. Ronald Moskovich, chief of cervical spine surgery at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City, said Reeve may be able to communicate by blinking his eyes.

Reeve, an avid horseman, was injured Saturday during an equestrian competition. He and his mount had cleared two of 18 obstacles. Then his horse stopped abrubtly at the third jump, flinging Reeve headlong to the ground. He was wearing a helmet, witnesses said.

In a prerecorded interview broadcast Wednesday night, Reeve told the television program "Hard Copy" that he had visited a spinal cord trauma unit to prepare for a Home Box Office movie role as a policeman hit in the spine by a bullet.

"A couple of days spent out at the spinal cord trauma unit and you see how easily it can happen," Reeve said. "You think, 'God, it could happen to anybody.'"