Family and friends of T.J. Lavin received good and bad news this week as the BMX rider continues to suffer the consequences of a stunt gone wrong at the Dew Tour Championships last week.
While doctors diagnosed Lavin as suffering from pneumonia, a common problem for patients with breathing tubes, the medical staff at Las Vegas' University Medical Center determined that the athlete likely does not have any brain damage, according to People.com.“Doctor’s are not expecting any [brain damage],” TJ’s friend and business manager, Chas Aday, told People magazine on Tuesday. “We’re just not going to know until he wakes up if there is any loss or how bad it is going to be.”
The 33-year-old “Real World/Road Rules Challenge” host, who has reportedly been kept in a medically induced coma since suffering an orbital fracture on his eye and a fractured right wrist in the accident, is now also battling pneumonia (most likely caused by the breathing tube that is helping the injured rider breathe while sedated), according to the mag.
The development of pneumonia has reportedly delayed surgery on TJ’s shattered wrist, but Chas said the star’s prognosis is still positive.
“He’s responding well,” Chas told the mag. “He’s squeezing our hands, so he’s responding appropriately. … He is coherent, but not fully awake. He’s following simple commands.”
In a separate interview with People, TJ’s mother, Barbara Lavin, said it was “killing” her to see her son like this.
“It’s very hard to see him like that. He doesn’t know where he is,” she told the mag. “I’ll say, ‘Mom’s here, squeeze my hand,’ and he will sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. He knows when Mom is here, he knows when his girlfriend is here. He squeezes her hand. It’s not all the time.”“It’s killing me,” she said of her son’s condition.
"I'm good," she told PEOPLE on Tuesday, five days after her son was put in a medically induced coma after crashing his BMX bike in Las Vegas. "Last night, not so much, but we talked to the doctor, and he made me feel so much better."
TJ was diagnosed with pneumonia on top of his crash injuries, but the antibiotics seem to be working. "He seems to be a little better," Barbara said. "His oxygen rate is a little better. The doctor was so reassuring."
But make no mistake: "It's killing me," she said of her son's struggle.
"It's very hard to see him like that. He doesn't know where he is," she said. "I'll say, 'Mom's here, squeeze my hand,' and he will sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. He knows when Mom is here, he knows when his girlfriend is here. He squeezes her hand. It's not all the time."
Aside from being Mom, Barbara is also acting as gatekeeper to her son's hospital room. And while she jokes that too many people are seeing the MTV host – or interested in seeing him – she's not surprised about the outpouring of support.
"He's got friends from all walks of life," she said. "He's got friends from the business community. He's got friends from the biking community. He's got friends from television. He would never burn anybody. He has a very high moral code. And I'm not saying that because I'm his mother. If I didn't think that, I'd tell him in a heartbeat."
