Trader won’t walk again

Trader Ray Ducharme, 31, is unlikely to walk again, according to health officals at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta hospital where he is getting treatment.

Ducharme was taken to the Shepherd Center on Monday to begin treatment and rehabilitation for injuries he received July 7 during events surrounding the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

Ducharme was injured during an event involving smaller cows. The cows are placed in a ring, and hundreds of people chase them and pull their tails and ears.

Doctors operated on Ducharme in Pamplona and reattached two vertebrae. It is believed he is paralyzed from his waist down and has limited mobility in his arms.

In a posting on the Web site pray4ray.com, a supportive site for Ducharme’s friends and family about his recovery, his sister, Erin, said he was making progress. He is taking breaks from a ventilator that has been helping him breathe and has been removed from all IVs, she wrote.

Bed sores he developed while in the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he now lives, may dely his recovery and keep him in the intensive care unit for another six weeks, according to the site.

His sister asked for prayers regarding the latest news on Ducharme’s recovery.

“According to the (physician’s assistant) we spoke to earlier, Ray is not expected to walk again, nor is there much hope that he will recover anything below his stomach,” she wrote.

Ducharme received some food Tuesday, but it went into his lungs and had to be suctioned out, according to the site. Doctors will try to feed him again tomorrow.

Family and friends remain hopeful.

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