The doctor who performed emergency surgery on USC tailback Stafon Johnson said Tuesday morning that Johnson was communicating through writing and hand signals and that he expects Johnson to make a full recovery.
Dr. Gudata Hinika, trauma medical director at California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, performed the surgery to reconstruct Johnson’s voicebox and repair an airway in his neck. Hinika said the weightlifting accident might have been fatal if Johnson was not an athlete.
“If anyone is not athletic like Stafon, maybe they don’t survive,” Hinika said.
Johnson is not expected to compete again this season although Hinika said it was possible Johnson might play football again.
Johnson is being fed through a tube in his stomach and doctors hope to remove a ventilator that is helping him breath. He remained in “critical but stable condition,” a hospital spokesperson said.