Shinjiro Otani to undergo surgery for cervical spinal cord injury

Shinjiro Otani's injury was determined to be a spinal cord injury. He'll be undergoing surgery on April 13th

Shinjiro Otani scheduled to undergo surgery on 4/13.

Coming out of the main event of Pro Wrestling ZERO1’s 4/10 show, Shinjiro Otani had to be transported to a hospital after taking a German suplex into a turnbuckle pad. He was unable to move his arms or legs but was able to communicate verbally.

ZERO1 provided an update on Otani and noted that Otani was taken to the I.C.U and is scheduled to undergo surgery on April 13th for a cervical spinal cord injury.

Shinjiro Otani, who was injured in the main event of ZERO1’s 20th & 21st Anniversary Tournament at Oshinobu PREMIUM Ryogoku Kokugikan on April 10.

The name of the [injury] is ‘Cervical Spinal Cord Injury.’

After emergency transport on the night of the 10th, the patient was transferred to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for the purpose of securing the airway, and will undergo surgery tomorrow, the 13th, to prevent future deterioration.

Currently, the hospital is asking the attending physician to contact the family and the family to contact us in order to prevent the transmission of coronavirus.

Tokyo Sports reached out to Dr. Shunji Asamoto of Makita General Hospital, who performed surgery on the now-retired Manabu Nakanishi. Nakanishi suffered a central spinal cord injury and Dr. Asamoto feels that when it comes to injuries as such, it is best to operate as soon as possible. He believes the reason Nakanishi and Tomoaki Honma were able to return from their respective injuries is that surgery was performed at the right time.

There is no medical evidence, but in general, I think it is better to operate as soon as possible for injuries such as Otani’s. I think one of the main reasons why [Manabu] Nakanishi and [Tomoaki] Homma were able to return to competition was that the surgery was performed at the right time and they were able to start rehabilitation as soon as possible after the surgery.

POST Wrestling will provide an update on Otani post-surgery when it becomes available. We’d like to send our well wishes to him going forward.

About Andrew Thompson 9437 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.