THE MIRACLE MAN : FROM PARALYSIS TO GOLF IN 9 DAYS NEW TECHNIQUE BEATS STROKES.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

For stroke patient Bill Boyer, the decision came down to golf: Either risk having to give up the game he loves because of stroke-induced paralysis, or undergo a radically new medical procedure.

The 61-year-old carpet installer from Sylmar chose the experimental surgery.

Just after Boyer was stricken by a stroke, he couldn't move his left arm and leg; nine days later, he played golf in the rain.

``I recovered just like that,'' Boyer said Friday, with a snap of his fingers. ``I walked out of the hospital. Now I work four- and five-hour days, then go home and play golf.''

His remarkable odyssey to normalcy is the result of a new technique developed by Dr. John Frazee, a neurosurgeon at UCLA Medical Center. Frazee described his method to his colleagues Thursday at the International Joint Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation in Anaheim.

Without the surgery, Frazee said, Boyer had just a one-in-five chance of recovering from the stroke.

But, he explained, ``I knew he liked to golf. I told him we had a reasonable chance that we could give him full function of that leg.''

It was not without risk.

After Frazee had perfected the procedure on baboons, Boyer was just the second of six stroke patients to undergo the operation.

Strokes occur when a clot prevents oxygen-rich blood from reaching the brain through the normal route, arteries. Frazee theorized that if the arteries were blocked, he could reroute blood to the brain through veins, which normally carry oxygen-depleted blood to the heart.

``The message we want to send is, `This is treatable,' '' he said.

Each year, some 400,000 Americans suffer strokes - among them Boyer, who was stricken in January 1996 while he was retrieving a box from his garage.

``My whole left side of my body became completely numb and I fell down - boom,'' he said. ``I couldn't walk.''

Boyer crawled 20 feet to his pickup truck in the driveway and called 911 on his cellular phone.

By the time he reached UCLA Medical Center, his left leg and hip were completely paralyzed.

Frazee had approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration to use his technique on 10 patients, and he had tried it on only one before Boyer arrived at the hospital.

Boyer said he didn't realize that the first patient had fully recovered until after the surgery.

As Boyer pondered his prospects, he thought about his passion: golf, a game he has played twice a week for the past 12 years.

He agreed to the surgery.

``I'm just taking a gamble. I have no idea what's in store,'' he said, recalling his state of mind. ``I didn't want to be paralyzed and I'm an avid golfer.''

Fifteen minutes after starting the procedure, Boyer could move his leg again.

``He could move it completely and normally,'' Frazee said.

No one was more amazed than Boyer. ``The next thing I know, the doctor is asking me to wiggle my toes,'' he said, moving his fingers for emphasis. ``It was happy time then.''

Boyer's wife, Pauline Boyer, said she almost couldn't believe his dramatic recovery.

``For me, it definitely was a miracle cure,'' she said. ``He was totally paralyzed on the left side. The left side of his brain would have died.''

After spending five days in the hospital, Boyer returned home. Except for taking a blood thinner to prevent the formation of blood clots, he said he suffers no side effects from the surgery.

But while the procedure improved Boyer's health, it hasn't helped his golf game: ``I've gone from an 11 handicap to an 18 handicap,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: (Color) Paul Boyer, 61, left, recovered from a paralyzing stroke through a treatment developed by Dr. John Frazee, right.

David R. Crane/Daily News