TV role comes tragically true for Reeve

Christopher Reeve, star of Superman, is severely paralysed and may never breathe again unaided, doctors have said.

Ironically, his latest film role was as a policeman who goes insane after he is shot, paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. Above Suspicion was shown on television in the US on Monday.

In a television interview just before his accident, he said: "A couple of days spent out at the spinal chord trauma unit and you see how easily it can happen."

"You think, God, it could happen to anybody. It is frightening how easily life can change. One moment everything is fine and then the world falls apart. It is terrifying what these people have to face."

The 42-year-old actor broke his neck when he landed head-first after being thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia, on Saturday.

Now he is fighting for survival, his breathing depending on a ventilator. His doctors in Charlotteville, Virginia said yesterday that he was in serious but stable condition.

His publicist said that he was conscious and was able to communicate.

At Mr Reeve's bedside yesterday were his wife, Dana Morosini, and their two-year-old son, as well as Gae Exton, a British former girlfriend with whom he has two children.

One United States neurosurgery expert warned his condition was "almost inconsistent with survival". Dr Duncan McBride, chief of neurosurgery at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles said: "It's very, very, very bad. It's about the worst thing that can happen to a guy."

Kookal Krishnan, a spinal injuries specialist in Britain and consultant at Southport District General Hospital, said it was likely that Reeve would always need help from a ventilator. But sophisticated radio-controlled medical equipment can be inserted into his body to help him breathe.

"We can put radio frequency-controlled stimulators inside a person's chest connected to the nerves that supply the diaphragm. By using a small radio transmitter, we can stimulate the person to breathe," Dr Krishnan said. Such equipment costs up to pounds 45,000 in the US.

Simon Barnes, of the International Spinal Injuries Research Trust said that more commonly a ventilator is fitted to the wheelchair.

But he said there was a chance that Mr Reeve might breathe again naturally. "His spine is in shock. When this dies down he may get his breathing back. It can take a couple of months."

Mr Barnes, who is paraplegic, said it was likely that Mr Reeve would be able to use a wheelchair controlled by a chin strap."He will need assistance with all his bodily functions," Mr Barnes added.