Paralyzed Rutgers player helping others

In his dreams, he still is playing football. He still is driving a car. He still is walking the Rutgers campus with nothing more pressing to think about than getting to his next class on time.

In his dreams, there is never a wheelchair.

"And then I wake up," said Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers football player who suffered a spinal cord injury in a game against Army on Oct. 16. "But it's not a sad thing, because I understand why I'm here and why this is happening."

LeGrand, 20, believes there was a reason he was injured while making a tackle on a kickoff return seven months ago at the Meadowlands. The injury left him paralyzed from the neck down, fracturing his C3 and C4 vertebrae.

"I believe I am a strong enough person to go through this," he said. "I think I can help motivate other people not to look down on the injury. I truly believe I can help other people out."

And that was one of the reasons LeGrand and his family made a 21/2-hour drive, with his wheelchair belted into a custom outfitted minibus, from their home in central New Jersey to Albertson, Long Island, two weeks ago. LeGrand was being honored at a fundraiser for Abilities!, a non-profit organization that runs a school for disabled children and a center for disabled adults.

LeGrand believes strongly that he will walk again someday. In the meantime, he isn't putting his life on hold. LeGrand is pushing himself to do as much as possible since leaving the Kessler Rehabilitation Institute two months ago. He is just starting to include public speaking, as he did in Albertson.

Raising spirits

LeGrand is outgoing with an infectious smile, which he was quick to flash at any of the 650 or so attendees at the dinner, according to Nan Gerson, the head of fundraising for Abilities! A hush fell over the crowd as a tape of the play that injured LeGrand was played on a screen before he was introduced and gave a five-minute talk, Gerson said.

"All of the kids here know who he is, and this was so exciting for us," Gerson said. "He's such a positive person, really an inspiration."

Though this was one of the longest trips LeGrand has taken since the injury, he has made a point to get out and about.

He said he has been to several Rutgers practices and a scrimmage, spoken at fundraisers and even attended Game 3 of the Knicks-Celtics playoff series at Madison Square Garden. He said he frequently goes to the movies and eats out.

He took an economics class via Skype this past semester, when he used a voice-recognition program to do his assignments on a computer. This summer, he is planning to return to the Rutgers campus and take classes in African Studies and DNA. In the fall, he wants to resume taking a full course load and attend every Rutgers football game at home and on the road if he can.

"My mom is always trying to slow me down," LeGrand said. "but I was in Kessler for five months and stuck in one room. Now I'm out and I'm going all over the place."

A mother's touch

Karen LeGrand was in the stands last October when her son lay motionless on the turf after tackling Army's Malcolm Brown, who is from Bay Shore, late in the fourth quarter. And she was in the ambulance talking to him as they put a mask over his face and he passed out. She also was at Hackensack Medical Center when he woke up confused and frightened three days later.

Doctors threw all kinds of percentages at Karen in those initial days. At first, they thought her son might not live. Then there was a chance he wouldn't regain cognitive function. Next, they predicted he would have to be on a ventilator for the rest of his life.

"I told them anything that they had to say that was negative, I wanted them to say it to me and not to him," she said. "My son is not a percentage. He's my son. I couldn't imagine how he was feeling inside, and I didn't want him to feel any worse. I didn't want all that negativity around him."

The family credits the positive thinking and faith for many of the strides that LeGrand has made. In November, five weeks after the family was told he might never come off the ventilator, he was breathing on his own. In December, he regained some feeling in his hands. Now he can sit forward, feel sensations all over his body and move his shoulders.

Plenty of support

He has received an outpouring of support since the injury. Brown sent LeGrand a letter saying he was praying for LeGrand, and he says he has read it several times. The group 3D Rock Band released a single called "Believe" whose profits go to help Eric and his family. Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid visited LeGrand. Former Jet Dennis Byrd, who regained his ability to walk after a career-ending neck injury paralyzed him in 1992, sent him a copy of his book.

LeGrand, a junior defensive tackle at the time of the injury, says he misses football, but he has turned his competitive energies elsewhere as he competes to make a good life for himself.

Since getting out of Kessler Rehabilitation Institute five months ago, LeGrand and his mother have lived with his aunt and uncle while their home undergoes construction to make it more accessible. He gets around in a special motorized wheelchair that he controls by blowing into a tube. In the morning, he gets up -- it takes him about an hour and a half to get dressed and washed -- and he heads to therapy three times a week. Each session lasts about three hours and can be exhausting.

He also is rethinking his plans for the future, setting his sights on trying to graduate in a year and a half. He is getting ready to switch his major from criminal justice to communications because he would like to remain close to sports and maybe go into sports broadcasting.

"I always dreamed of being a broadcaster after playing in the NFL," he said. "But now, if I can't play in the NFL, I'm going to have to have my dream of being a broadcaster start a little earlier."

As he talked about his dreams of the future, LeGrand smiled widely. Except for the wheelchair, he looked and sounded the same as any other 20-year-old college student looking out at a seemingly limitless future.

Said LeGrand: "My plan is to live my life to my fullest."