Volleyball Player Continues Surprising Comeback From Gas Poisoning : Medicine: Athlete is cutting months off normal recovery period and disproving predictions that he would be hopelessly brain-damaged.

By AMY WALLACE

Jan. 9, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Henry Kim Wong, the Canadian volleyball player who was overcome by carbon monoxide in a San Diego hotel last week, continued his rapid improvement Tuesday, walking, showering and dressing himself with some assistance.

Though a magnetic resonance image brain scan conducted Tuesday showed Wong has suffered some damage to the part of the brain that integrates motor function, hospital staff members said the 20-year-old athlete appeared to be normal except for a slowing in his facial expressions.

“Most people get over this in months,” Dr. Patrick Lyden told a news conference. “But knowing Henry, he’ll probably get over it in weeks or days.” Lyden is a neurologist who is part of the 10-member team that has been treating Wong at UC San Diego Medical Center.

Wong and Cory Louis Korosi, two members of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology men’s volleyball team, were poisoned by carbon monoxide leaking from a dirt-clogged wall heater in the Mission Valley Inn on New Year’s Day. Korosi had died, and Wong was unconscious by the time hotel employees forced their way into their room after the men failed to responded to knocks on the door and calls from teammates.

Lyden described Wong’s recovery as “stunning” and happily admitted that Wong has continued to disprove earlier predictions that he would be hopelessly brain-damaged. Wong was upgraded from fair to good condition Tuesday and moved from an intensive-care unit to an open ward.

Lyden said that Wong will probably be ready for release today but that the logistics of transporting him back to his home in Calgary will probably keep him in the San Diego hospital until Thursday or Friday.

On Tuesday, during the first photo session since the poisoning, Wong posed for cameras with his father, Don, by his side. He spoke softly in Cantonese as his father leaned over him, stroking the head of his only child.

Lyden said Wong has been told how he got to the hospital and understands why he must stay there.

“We explained to Henry what happened,” he said. “He knows what happened to his roommate. He knows what happened to him and why he’s here.”

Lyden said that despite Wong’s sluggish expressions, it was clear that he was upset at the news of Korosi’s death and disheartened by the possibility that he may be left with some side-effects from his ordeal.

“He said he felt depressed by that news,” Lyden said. “He said, ‘I guess deficit . . . depends on how you look at it.’ I think he’s the type of person who would choose to take an optimistic view.”

But Lyden said that the fast pace of Wong’s early recovery bodes well that he will continue to bounce back.

“The brain and the nervous system is an amazing organ,” Lyden explained. “Recovery continues for unknown amounts of time, by unknown mechanisms. His initial recovery curve is so steep that he’s going to go quite far.”

Since his arrival at the hospital, Wong has undergone aggressive intravenous treatment for cerebral edema, or brain swelling. Until Monday, a ventilator helped him breathe. After it was removed, physical and occupational therapy began.

On Tuesday, doctors tested his short-term memory by showing him pairs of objects and quizzing him about which objects were paired with others. He did well, answering five out of six questions correctly. Lyden expressed hope that Wong’s long-term memory was intact as well, noting that Wong remembered his date of birth and the names of his father and his coach.

“We’re trying to find a list of Canadian (prime ministers) so we can ask him that,” Lyden said. But he teased the roomful of journalists that if they were quizzed on American presidents “most of you could get back to Eisenhower, but you’d probably leave out Ford.”

Also on Tuesday, State Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) became the latest politician to weigh in since the Mission Valley Inn tragedy, releasing a set of guidelines suggested by public health experts that could help prevent future carbon monoxide poisonings.

Killea noted that deaths like Korosi’s occur only occasionally, but that carbon monoxide causes other, less-serious health problems every day.

“A large percentage of people admitted to hospitals complaining of chest pains or flu symptoms are actually suffering from CO (carbon monoxide) poisoning,” Killea said in a statement. “Taking the time to clean your gas-burning appliances and to install a CO detector can improve your health and perhaps even save a life.”

Among the suggestions:

* Provide adequate ventilation when using wood stoves, heaters and fire places.

* Do not use gasoline-powered engines in confined spaces.

* Never burn charcoal inside a home or tent.

* Have only qualified technicians install fuel-burning equipment.

* Make sure furnaces have adequate intake of outside air.

* And check heaters regularly for signs of blockage.

San Diego Gas & Electric Co. will send someone to check heaters for free if a problem is suspected. If renters suspect that their heater is faulty, or that it has not been serviced or inspected recently, and they cannot get their landlord to service the heater, they may contact the city’s Building Inspection Department’s housing inspection division for help at 533-4550.