Road To Recovery -- Family, Friends Share Ordeal Of Ramon Ramos

PORTLAND - For Ramon Ramos, life was terrific and the future was bright.

Basketball had taken him from a small town in Puerto Rico, to the Olympic Games, to the NCAA championship game and finally, to the NBA.

He was a 22-year-old Portland Trail Blazer rookie, playing the sport he loved at its highest level.

All that changed on a cold December morning.

Police say the sports car Ramos was driving was traveling at 84 to 102 mph when it hit an icy spot on Interstate 5 just south of Portland. The car flew 40 feet through the air and rolled eight times.

He wasn't wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the vehicle, suffering a severe brain injury when he struck the roadway.

Seven weeks later, he slowly is emerging from a coma. He seems to recognize his parents and girlfriend, who have been at his side throughout his recovery.

``He's doing a lot better,'' said his close friend and teammate Mark Bryant. ``Every day he's improving. His eyes are open. Now I'm just waiting for him to say something.''

Ramos made the Trail Blazers as a free agent after an impressive performance in the exhibition season. He never played in a regular-season game and probably never will.

His family and friends aren't concerned about his basketball future. They just want him to be able to take care of himself and lead a normal life.

Dr. Kim Burchiel, head of neurosurgery at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital, said Ramos ``has a good chance of recover to independent function.

``It's not 100 percent, but it's probably in the range of 75 percent that he will be independent either with very little assistance or completely independent.''

But Burchiel thinks it is unrealistic to believe Ramos will be able to return to professional basketball.

``I would say that would be miraculous,'' he said. ``I don't expect that to happen.''

Shortly after the accident occurred Dec. 16, Burchiel said Ramos had only a 50-50 chance of recovery. He had suffered several bruises along the base of the brain.

Twice Ramos underwent emergency surgery to relieve pressure on the brain.

His parents, Ramon and Iluminada Ramos, came to Portland the next day, along with his girlfriend, Carmen Padial.

``These folks have been with him, except for late at night and early in the morning, 24 hours a day,'' Burchiel said. ``They're always there.''

For a month, the parents stayed in a hospital room a few feet from their son. Two weeks ago, as Ramon improved, they moved to his apartment.

Using Padial as his interpreter, Ramos' father, who works in an electronics laboratory in Puerto Rico, talked about his son.

``We feel very happy because he has had an everyday progress and it's very noticeable,'' the elder Ramos said. ``He moves his eyes. He moves his arms and legs. He will follow you with his eyes. When your hands are cold and you touch him, he will feel it. When they put a needle in him, he'll feel it. Even at times he seems to want to sit down. He will try to sit down.''

``At the beginning, we just hoped that he would live,'' Ramos' father said. ``Now our hope is that he will recuperate from everything and we know that he will do it.''

This is not the story of a wild and crazy athlete who got drunk and wrecked his car. Ramos didn't drink alcohol. State police said there were no signs of drugs or alcohol in his body.

The 6-foot-8 power forward is, by all accounts, a gentle giant.

Bryant, a second-year Trail Blazer who was a teammate of Ramos for three years at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said his friend ``is one of the nicest guys.''

``He'll do anything for you. He's a very shy, quiet type of person, but he's a real good person.''

Ramos' father said his only son was raised in ``a simple, humble family'' in Canovanas, a town of about 5,000 near San Juan.

``That's how he has been brought up,'' his father said. ``He is a very hard-working person who likes to earn what he's got by his own merit. We're really proud of him because we have taught him to be like that.''

``He is a very gentle person,'' his girlfriend said. ``He is a very humble person. He's really giving.''

But he drove too fast, ``like any other young man his age,'' his father said.

And he wasn't wearing a seat belt. If he had, chances are his injuries would have been much less severe, Burchiel said.

``People have terrible injuries when they remain in the car, but often the head is spared or relatively spared,'' Burchiel said. ``Clearly the brunt of the injury was suffered by his head. He had very little else wrong with him.''

Burchiel said Ramos' excellent health and youth helped him survive.

Ramos began playing basketball when he was 10 or 11 years old, his father said. A short time later, he caught the eye of Seton Hall coach P.J. Carlesimo, who brought the youngster to the school.

He played four seasons for the Pirates and, in 1988, was part of the Puerto Rican Olympic team, scoring 16 points in a game against the Soviet Union.

In 1988-89, he was named to the all-Big East team as Seton Hall won the conference title and swept through the NCAA tournament, losing 80-79 to Michigan in overtime in the championship game. He averaged 11.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game as a senior.

Ramos wasn't selected in the NBA draft, but he signed as a free agent with the Trail Blazers and made a big impression, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in one exhibition game.

``I was a little disappointed (not getting drafted),'' he said at the time, ``but I couldn't worry about it. Maybe it was the best thing for me, because I got to choose the team I could most benefit from. Hopefully, that's what I've done. Everything has been working good so far.''

When the regular season began, he was placed on the injured list because of a minor case of tendinitis in the knee. In early December, the Blazers released veteran Robert Reid and activated Ramos.

The night of Dec. 15, Ramos was on the bench during Portland's homecourt loss to Golden State. He went to a sports bar where teammate Cliff Robinson was celebrating his birthday.

He apparently was headed home, driving a Nissan 300ZX loaned by a car dealer while his Nissan Maxima was being repaired. Police believe he may have missed his exit and drove to the next one, then headed north when the accident occurred.

A trucker told police he thought Ramos was racing another car, but state police have discounted that theory, saying the two cars were several seconds apart.

Ramos' father said the family has received hundreds of cards and gifts from well-wishers.

``There has been a positive side,'' he said. ``It happened at Christmas and it made us see how much people love him and that people still care for other people. We feel good that a lot of people have shared our pain and suffering and have prayed for Ramon.''

Ramos will be moved to a rehabilitation center in the next few weeks. His parents plans to stay with him as long as necessary. So does his girlfriend.

``Sometimes you don't know how much you love a person until something happens and you have to sit down and think `This is the real world and this is really happening,'' she said. ``You have to mature real quick.''

Meanwhile, Ramos' uniform still hangs in his locker at Memorial Coliseum.

``It's going to be there. He's part of our team,'' Portland coach Rick Adelman said. ``He's making progress. Whether he plays again or not is a very minor point. When he walks into the locker room and says hello to everybody, that's what we're waiting for.''