Question
My friend recently suffered a traumatic spinal injury, its what the doctors called a "blowout" fracture of C5. They performed surgery to rebuild C5 and then fuse C3-C5. He did not cut the cord, but has bruising. He currently has feeling in both his arms and legs, but limited movement of his arms and no movement in his legs. The accident occurred on Friday May 8th, 5 days ago. I'm wondering if you know how long it can take for the bruising to go down and what chances there are that he will be able to walk again?

Answer
Hi Jon,

   From what I've read, if some of the injured nerves were just bruised, they might start to work again days to weeks after the injury. However, nerves that were badly damaged will die. They will not grow back and the injury is permanent. In other words it really depends how badly the spinal cord is bruised. Based on your friends return to date I would guess he has a better chance than others. Just do your best to encourage him  and to stress how important his physical therapy is for his recovery. I hope this helps. I will keep good thoughts for him.

Sincerely, Ken