Spring Break
Houston surgeon struggles to regain life, career
JEANNIE KEVER Houston Chronicle
Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: STATE
HOUSTON (AP) _ Sweat soaked his Aggie baseball cap as Eugene Alford lurched upright over the parallel bars. Suddenly, he was once again the tallest person in the room.
"Man," he said, as his daughter flashed a thumbs-up. "This feels so good. This is the first time I've been standing upright since December 30."
The thrill didn't last long. After about 10 minutes, his blood pressure began to drop, and he was lowered into his wheelchair.
No matter. That moment in spring provided a sign that Alford, a surgeon accustomed to working 14-hour days and lecturing around the world, was on his way back from an accident that fractured his spine and left him paralyzed below the waist.
Back to what, however, remains uncertain.
The bravado of the weeks after the accident has faded. Maybe he will walk again. Maybe he won't. The real dream, it turns out, is independence and a return to the operating room.
But that, too, may prove elusive.
It's certainly possible to perform surgery from a wheelchair - surgeons use their hands, their knowledge and their judgment, not their legs. But can he balance work and rehabilitation? Will people want a surgeon in a wheelchair? How will returning to work affect his disability insurance and his future ability to support his family?
Several times, he set a date to resume seeing patients, only to push it back. He even began to consider, reluctantly, the possibility of doing something else.
"If I have to retrain or do administration or teach, I'll do it," he said. "But in my heart of hearts, I'm a very skilled surgeon. That's my gift."
For the past six months, Alford's recovery has been all-consuming. In early May, he entered the NeuroRecovery Network, a clinical program designed to rewire the autonomic nervous system.
Alford had just turned 48 when he was injured by a falling tree in late December.
He had performed more than 800 surgeries at The Methodist Hospital in 2007, his services as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in such demand that patients waited months for elective operations.
"Man," he said, as his daughter flashed a thumbs-up. "This feels so good. This is the first time I've been standing upright since December 30."
The thrill didn't last long. After about 10 minutes, his blood pressure began to drop, and he was lowered into his wheelchair.
No matter. That moment in spring provided a sign that Alford, a surgeon accustomed to working 14-hour days and lecturing around the world, was on his way back from an accident that fractured his spine and left him paralyzed below the waist.
Back to what, however, remains uncertain.
The bravado of the weeks after the accident has faded. Maybe he will walk again. Maybe he won't. The real dream, it turns out, is independence and a return to the operating room.
But that, too, may prove elusive.
It's certainly possible to perform surgery from a wheelchair - surgeons use their hands, their knowledge and their judgment, not their legs. But can he balance work and rehabilitation? Will people want a surgeon in a wheelchair? How will returning to work affect his disability insurance and his future ability to support his family?
Several times, he set a date to resume seeing patients, only to push it back. He even began to consider, reluctantly, the possibility of doing something else.
"If I have to retrain or do administration or teach, I'll do it," he said. "But in my heart of hearts, I'm a very skilled surgeon. That's my gift."
For the past six months, Alford's recovery has been all-consuming. In early May, he entered the NeuroRecovery Network, a clinical program designed to rewire the autonomic nervous system.
Alford had just turned 48 when he was injured by a falling tree in late December.
He had performed more than 800 surgeries at The Methodist Hospital in 2007, his services as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in such demand that patients waited months for elective operations.
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