Sports

Buoniconti: There will be cure for paralysis

No news likely remains bad news concerning Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, now well past the 72 hours in which doctors hope to see evidence of sensation or function in paralysis victims.

But of all the inevitable phases of denial, depression, anger and resolution coming for the Rutgers junior, who was injured Saturday on a tackle against Army, the end stage, vows Marc Buoniconti, will not be a wheelchair for life.

“Tuesday will be my 25th anniversary,” said Buoniconti on the phone from Miami yesterday. “And Eric is never going to be in a wheelchair as long as I have been.

“There is no way a cure for paralysis will not be found before then. If not, I have failed as a person and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis will have failed.”

Buoniconti hasn’t felt a thing below his head since lowering it into Eastern Tennessee State’s Herman Jacobs on Oct. 26, 1985. Everything above the neck works better than ever.

Buoniconti, once a rebel without a cause who was sent to The Citadel for its military discipline, is no mere poster boy for The Miami Project, an effort that has raised a staggering $350 million for research to someday get himself and

LeGrand out of chairs.

FDA-approved injections of a patient’s own Schwann cells — sheaths that wrap and support the neurons gluing the peripheral central nervous system — begin next year after achieving a 70 percent success rate in lab animals.

Buoniconti isn’t the only one who thinks there will be a cure for paralysis.

“Not only because of Schwann cell research, I would go faster than 25 years, maybe five or 10,” said Dr. Barth Green, who directs the Miami project.

Twenty-five years ago, the only thing lower than a life expectancy following Buonconti’s complete injury of the C-3 and C-4 [vertebrae] was the priority of a cure. But Marc’s father Nick, the Hall of Fame linebacker, used his name to begin a fight that went far beyond the life of just one helpless, scared, son.

“I was on a respirator with pneumonia, with tubes and wires, and constant X-rays, had such huge issues that [paralysis] was almost irrelevant the first few days,” Buoniconti recalled. “Then, I was getting ready for my surgery and thinking that they were going to find something in there that’s going to help, that there was at least a chance. That kind of denial lasts for a few weeks.”

Only God can sort through the factors that have Kevin Everett, the Bills special teamer who apparently still had some nerve fibers intact and probably benefited from controversial hypothermia treatments championed by Dr. Green, walking today.

Everett was one of the lucky ones to be walking three months after he suffered his spinal cord injury on a helmet-to-helmet hit on Sept. 9, 2007, but that isn’t usually the case, especially with more severe injuries.

Green said only about 10 percent of those suffering a complete injury as high as C-3, C-4 like Buoniconti’s and LeGrand’s regain some sensation, another 10 percent some movement.

“If you’re not getting better you’re going to get angry, wonder ‘Why me?’ ” Buoniconti said. “When those answers don’t come you are going to get depressed, which is when you most need the love of family and friends.

“I did not want to die, but I would understand why someone might think about it because I can honestly say that if I did not get off the respirator, I’m not sure I would want to have lived, it was just so awful,” he said. “I think of Christopher Reeve, have so much respect for people who are on respirators.

Buoniconti continues to hold out hope that he will walk again.

“Getting off [the respirator] at seven months changed my life, gave me an opportunity to be a positive force for change in this world,” he said. “But I wouldn’t characterize where I am as the stage of acceptance. I deal with my injury, never accept it. If I accept it, it will beat me. I still want it all, want to walk.”

Buoniconti knows the pain

LeGrand is going through, but that he should understand he has a better chance of being cured, because medicine is 25 years farther along in care for paralysis.

“Better facilities and technology, better operating room procedures, better opportunity for recovery,” Buoniconti said.

“I have learned nobody can take better care of you than yourself,” he said. “There are a lot of complications — bed sores, infections, skin problems, blood clots — but a lot of that stuff is preventable and can make a huge difference in life expectancy.”

Buoniconti also said the future still could be bright for LeGrand.

“He can work practically whatever job he wants, live a boundless life,” he said. “Mine is different than before, but I love my life. And Eric is in much better shape than I was 25 years ago.”

jay.greenberg@nypost.com