Doctor: Reeve May Recover Movement

Actor Christopher Reeve has sensation in his chest, meaning his spinal cord was not severed and he could regain some body movement, his doctor said Friday.

“I’m encouraged,” Dr. John A. Jane said. “If it were totally severed, we could say with certainty there would be no chance of recovery.”

The star of the “Superman” movies has pneumonia, but the infection is subsiding and Jane plans to go ahead with surgery Monday to fuse two upper vertebrae that were fractured when Reeve was thrown from a horse last weekend. He said Reeve’s pneumonia was typical in such cases.

Reeve, 42, remains unable to breathe on his own, but he has no pain and has a positive attitude about his condition, the neurosurgeon said.

“He’s communicating quite well considering he has to mouth his words,” Jane said.

“It is a difficult time for him and for us,” said the actor’s brother, Benjamin Reeve. “But . . . we do remain hopeful.”

Jane gave an update on the actor’s condition at a news conference at the University of Virginia Medical Center, where Reeve was taken after the accident at an equestrian competition in Culpeper.

Jane said it was still too early to say whether Reeve could ever regain movement in his limbs.

The surgery is intended to prevent bone fragments from pushing into Reeve’s spinal cord and causing further damage, but it won’t help his inability to breathe on his own, Jane said.

After the operation, Jane said, Reeve probably can be placed in an upright sitting position in his bed.

“He is very eager to get up,” he said.

Reeve is still in serious but stable condition. Jane said doctors discovered the sensation in the actor’s chest by touching it and having him nod his head when he felt something.

On Saturday, Reeve fell headfirst off his horse when it stopped abruptly in front of a jump.