From WTOL-TV Web Site - Steve Navarro
Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 2:08 pm
BG Player Recovers From Stroke
BOWLING GREEN (AP) -- With every mile walked, instant message typed and complete sentence spoken, Bowling Green tight end Steve Navarro moves closer to recovery.
He plans to return to classes next semester and hopes to rejoin its football team next season. His doctor, Ross Bogey, said that "would be a pretty remarkable accomplishment'' considering what happened to Navarro at his apartment on June 7 _ nine days after his 20th birthday. When Navarro woke up, he couldn't speak or move his right side. He had suffered a stroke.
"I was scared because I could feel myself being numb,'' Navarro said in a telephone interview from Orland Park, Ill., where he is recovering at his parents' house. He still speaks slowly, sometimes stuttering and occasionally losing his thought. He isn't sure what caused the stroke but can describe what it felt like. The hulking 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior, using only the strength in his left arm and leg, crawled to the couch and phoned his sisters for help but could only say ``hey, hey,'' he said. Next, "I crawled to my room just with the left side of my body and threw clothes on and then crawled to the couch and I pulled myself onto the couch and I just waited.''
About seven hours elapsed before medics arrived, and Navarro was flown by helicopter to Toledo St. Vincent Medical Center, said his father, Mike Navarro. Mike Navarro said doctors believe several things may have contributed to his son's stroke: an infection or blood clot from having his wisdom teeth removed about a month earlier, being dehydrated from working out and a year-old ailment that caused three liters of fluid to build up in his left lung, forcing him to miss 2003 spring practice. The numbness in Navarro's right side went away in a day, and he now has recovered enough to walk, ride an exercise bike, lift light dumbbells and do push-ups and sit-ups. He no longer attends physical therapy but tires easily.
"We're just trying to get him to be accepting of the fact that right now football is on the back burner,'' said Mike Navarro, who also was his son's coach at Carl Sandburg High School in suburban Chicago.
Bogey declined to discuss Navarro's illness because of medical privacy rules but said typically there are no warning signs when a 20-year-old suffers a stroke. Bogey, a stroke recovery specialist at the Rehabilitation Institution of Chicago, said ``it would be uncommon'' for Navarro to recover enough for football, and clearing him to play ``would be a really tough call.''
Coaches and teammates visited Navarro during his four-day hospital stay in Toledo and have stopped by his house since he got home June 25 after two weeks at the Chicago rehab facility. Bowling Green assistant coach Troy Rothenbuhler said the staff will ``hold his spot if he can fight his way back.'' Navarro's strong handshake proved to Rothenbuhler that a return is possible, he said.
"He'll try to break your hand,'' Rothenbuhler said. ``He'll try to squeeze to show that 'Hey, I'm going to be back.'''
Navarro spends an hour each weekday at a speech class he hopes will prepare him for a return to school. The integrated science major wants to be a high school football coach and teacher. Typing on the computer, especially Internet instant messages with friends, helps him process information and aid his conversation skills, his father said. But Navarro said he's starting to get cabin fever and just wants ``to get back to Bowling Green.'' He plans to attend the Falcons' home games this season. He earned the starting tight end job in spring practice following two seasons of playing mostly on special teams. He had only two career catches for 18 yards and one touchdown but impressed his coaches. ``He works as hard as anybody in the weight room and on the field,'' Rothenbuhler said. ``His abilities were just starting to come around, he was coming out of his shell a little bit.''
During Navarro's time on the couch, sisters Cathy and Jeannie, worried about their brother, called their mother, Gail, who called Mike. He called his son's apartment complex and asked them to call 911. Navarro could have gotten help earlier, but roommate Brad Williams, a Bowling Green defensive lineman, didn't realize anything was wrong with his friend when he came home briefly for lunch. Williams asked Navarro how he was doing and assumed he was sleeping when his roommate mumbled a response, Mike Navarro said. Doctors told the family his condition wouldn't have changed had he gotten to the hospital sooner, Mike Navarro said.
Bowling Green coaches were on a golf outing when they learned of Navarro's stroke and went to the hospital. ``It's just been very encouraging since he had the stroke, the progress he's made,'' head coach Gregg Brandon said. ``He's a strong kid.''
Posted 6:40 a.m., 8-17, [email protected]
BOWLING GREEN (AP) -- With every mile walked, instant message typed and complete sentence spoken, Bowling Green tight end Steve Navarro moves closer to recovery.
He plans to return to classes next semester and hopes to rejoin its football team next season. His doctor, Ross Bogey, said that "would be a pretty remarkable accomplishment'' considering what happened to Navarro at his apartment on June 7 _ nine days after his 20th birthday. When Navarro woke up, he couldn't speak or move his right side. He had suffered a stroke.
"I was scared because I could feel myself being numb,'' Navarro said in a telephone interview from Orland Park, Ill., where he is recovering at his parents' house. He still speaks slowly, sometimes stuttering and occasionally losing his thought. He isn't sure what caused the stroke but can describe what it felt like. The hulking 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior, using only the strength in his left arm and leg, crawled to the couch and phoned his sisters for help but could only say ``hey, hey,'' he said. Next, "I crawled to my room just with the left side of my body and threw clothes on and then crawled to the couch and I pulled myself onto the couch and I just waited.''
About seven hours elapsed before medics arrived, and Navarro was flown by helicopter to Toledo St. Vincent Medical Center, said his father, Mike Navarro. Mike Navarro said doctors believe several things may have contributed to his son's stroke: an infection or blood clot from having his wisdom teeth removed about a month earlier, being dehydrated from working out and a year-old ailment that caused three liters of fluid to build up in his left lung, forcing him to miss 2003 spring practice. The numbness in Navarro's right side went away in a day, and he now has recovered enough to walk, ride an exercise bike, lift light dumbbells and do push-ups and sit-ups. He no longer attends physical therapy but tires easily.
"We're just trying to get him to be accepting of the fact that right now football is on the back burner,'' said Mike Navarro, who also was his son's coach at Carl Sandburg High School in suburban Chicago.
Bogey declined to discuss Navarro's illness because of medical privacy rules but said typically there are no warning signs when a 20-year-old suffers a stroke. Bogey, a stroke recovery specialist at the Rehabilitation Institution of Chicago, said ``it would be uncommon'' for Navarro to recover enough for football, and clearing him to play ``would be a really tough call.''
Coaches and teammates visited Navarro during his four-day hospital stay in Toledo and have stopped by his house since he got home June 25 after two weeks at the Chicago rehab facility. Bowling Green assistant coach Troy Rothenbuhler said the staff will ``hold his spot if he can fight his way back.'' Navarro's strong handshake proved to Rothenbuhler that a return is possible, he said.
"He'll try to break your hand,'' Rothenbuhler said. ``He'll try to squeeze to show that 'Hey, I'm going to be back.'''
Navarro spends an hour each weekday at a speech class he hopes will prepare him for a return to school. The integrated science major wants to be a high school football coach and teacher. Typing on the computer, especially Internet instant messages with friends, helps him process information and aid his conversation skills, his father said. But Navarro said he's starting to get cabin fever and just wants ``to get back to Bowling Green.'' He plans to attend the Falcons' home games this season. He earned the starting tight end job in spring practice following two seasons of playing mostly on special teams. He had only two career catches for 18 yards and one touchdown but impressed his coaches. ``He works as hard as anybody in the weight room and on the field,'' Rothenbuhler said. ``His abilities were just starting to come around, he was coming out of his shell a little bit.''
During Navarro's time on the couch, sisters Cathy and Jeannie, worried about their brother, called their mother, Gail, who called Mike. He called his son's apartment complex and asked them to call 911. Navarro could have gotten help earlier, but roommate Brad Williams, a Bowling Green defensive lineman, didn't realize anything was wrong with his friend when he came home briefly for lunch. Williams asked Navarro how he was doing and assumed he was sleeping when his roommate mumbled a response, Mike Navarro said. Doctors told the family his condition wouldn't have changed had he gotten to the hospital sooner, Mike Navarro said.
Bowling Green coaches were on a golf outing when they learned of Navarro's stroke and went to the hospital. ``It's just been very encouraging since he had the stroke, the progress he's made,'' head coach Gregg Brandon said. ``He's a strong kid.''
Posted 6:40 a.m., 8-17, [email protected]