Doctors Upgrade Condition of Beaten Giants Fan

By - Kris Fletcher

Doctors at San Francisco General Hospital announced today that they had upgraded the condition of Brian Stow from critical to serious, three months after a severe beating outside Dodger Stadium left him comatose.

Photo from: articles.cnn.com

Stow is now breathing without a ventilator, moving his left arm and has responded to some basic commands. He has been weaned off two of the five anti-seizure meds used to stop what doctors called nearly uncontrollable seizures he began having shortly after the attack. Doctors have also started the process of lowering the doses of the remaining anti-seizure medications he is on.

The 42-year-old Santa Cruz paramedic and father of two is still without the left half of his skull, which was removed to reduce pressure from brain swelling.

According to doctors, too little is known about traumatic brain injuries to predict how quickly, or even whether Stow will recover any further. They likely won’t have a clear sense of where his recovery will plateau for months, which could be anywhere from his current condition, to a full return to work.

Giovanni Ramirez, the main suspect in Stow’s beating, was sent back to prison Monday for ten months for a parole violation involving access to a gun. Police arrested him in May in connection with the attack on Stow and have held him since then on the parole issue. He has yet to be formally charged in connection with the beating.

His lawyer, Jose Romero, says Ramirez was nowhere near Dodger Stadium at the time of the attack, and that eleven family members and friends have provided an alibi for him, saying he was at a relatives house.