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By Mark Starr
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Now for a Breath of Fresh Air
For the first time in eight years, Christopher Reeve can literally wake up and smell the coffee. The 50-year-old self-proclaimed "lab rat" is only the third patient to receive a small battery-controlled device that may allow the "Superman" star to scrap his ventilator. And a fringe benefit has been the restoration of his sense of smell.
On Feb. 28, doctors at University Hospitals of Cleveland performed an experimental procedure called diaphragm pacing, via laparoscopy. They inserted four tiny electrodes in Reeve's diaphragm muscle and wired them to an external battery pack, which stimulates the muscle and sends air to the lungs. In addition to more normal breathing and a sense of smell, patients also have better voice control. Right now, Reeve is off the vent for about 15 minutes every hour; after eight to 12 weeks of rigorous conditioning, doctors hope he'll be ventilator-free, though perhaps always dependent on the new device.
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The doctors say Reeve is extremely motivated--but of course we already knew that. At a press conference last week, a NEWSWEEK reporter asked Reeve if we'd be seeing more of him in front of the camera. "People are probably tired of me," he said. "I'll try not to show up too many times. But, oh yeah, on March 24 I'll be on an episode of 'The Practice'." Reeve plays a man injured in a car wreck, whose wife is accused of murder due to "caregiver burnout."
The horseback accident Reeve suffered eight years ago first left him completely paralyzed below the neck. He can now move his right wrist, the fingers of his left hand and his feet. In a pool or lying in bed, he can straighten his arms and legs against resistance. But his new breakthrough has a special poignancy. When doctors first removed the whooshing, hissing ventilator, he found himself astonished by the simplest thing imaginable. "All you could hear was me breathing. I haven't heard that sound since May 1995."
--Joan Raymond in Cleveland
Michelle Kwan
When the salt lake city Olympics ended in disappointment--a bronze medal--for Michelle Kwan, it figured to end one of America's greatest skating careers. Kwan figured differently. This January the grande dame of the ice, now 22, whipped her younger rivals, Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen, for her seventh national championship. Next week, in Washington, she'll seek her fifth world title. Kwan chilled with NEWSWEEK's Mark Starr.
Why aren't you home playing with your grandkids?
[Laughs] I'm still young. There's a time for everything. It's not like it's time to have a family yet. That will come--one year, two, three, who knows? But at this moment, nothing gives me the same feeling that skating does.
Would you have retired if you'd won the gold?
That's what if, what if, what if. I don't know. Skating is the one thing I've known since I was 5 years old. If you're capable of still having fun, why not keep on doing it?
Do the two Olympic losses weigh heavily?
I don't think so. I've had so many great years of skating, it doesn't all ride on two Olympic competitions.
You've always said you dreamed of being a legend. Are you one?
Hmm. I feel like I'm still in the bubble. But at the end of the day, I feel like I made a difference somehow. That I was able to touch the audience.
Do those audiences know the real Michelle?
I'm very real. I grew up in front of their eyes and they saw the changes. I don't lay out my whole personal life, but there's nothing to hide. I'm not leading a double life.
OK, don't lay out your whole personal life, but do you have one?
I do. But it's hard to juggle that. Skating can take control of your life. I've learned you have to take control--to try to balance having a boyfriend, going to school, friends and family. Skating is a huge chunk of my life, but the rest is just as important. Skating is not going to keep you company. It's not going to make you laugh. The ice doesn't talk back to you.
Get a Grip
James Gandolfini--with his Screen Actors Guild Award statuette--wants some $2 million per "Sopranos" episode. He's sued; HBO's stopped production. Looks like he's got the upper hand: if this drags on till Christmas, he can get work in a department store.
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