Healing Process

Pat Croce suffered a potentially devastating setback in his rehabilitation process yesterday when X-rays showed no bone growth, a sign of healing, in the broken left leg he suffered last June. As a result, a second operation is scheduled for this morning. Croce, the optimistic president of the 76ers, is scheduled to undergo surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at 8 a.m. today, where Dr. William DeLong will remove screws from the top of a rod that has been in Croce's leg since June.

Fleeting images of an unrecovered past haunted her for years. "I had the disquiet inside and I had some fragments of memory," said Sara Steele. But Steele, 37, a Mount Airy artist, didn't know what it was that she never quite remembered - only that, despite a successful career, she never felt very good about herself. She painted bright, pretty, floral watercolors that led to one-woman shows, illustrated best-selling calendars and adorned posters for liberal causes. All the while, darker images assaulted her. They originated in her childhood but, she says, "I knew I couldn't look in my family album and find them there.

For National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Philadelphia artist Sara Steele is showing her work at the Philadelphia Electric Co. building, 2301 Market St., Center City, through Nov. 6. She created the works, which went on display last night, as part of her healing process from the trauma of childhood incest.

I'm ripping up my Lars Von Trier fan club card. With the brutal, and brutally pretentious, Antichrist , the Danish provocateur and founder of the Dogma school (rules to make your movie by) has finally gone too far. Fusing the carnal intensity of Breaking the Waves (I was with it) with the horror-movie schtick of his Danish TV series The Kingdom (I was with that, too), and piling on religious symbolism, cloaked misogyny (in the guise of feminist doctrine) and graphic scenes of genital mutilation and torture, Von Trier has delivered a movie designed to abrade and repel.

Nancy Elizabeth Fitch, assistant professor of African-American studies at Temple University, reads a statement on the confirmation of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on Berks Mall yesterday. Fitch called the Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry into allegations of sexual harrassment against Thomas "a painful one for all involved - for the entire country. " A former assistant to Thomas, she testified on his behalf. In her statement she said it's time to get the country back on track and to begin a healing process.

President Reagan will speak to the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday night to tell his side of the Iran-Contra affair now that the 12 weeks of public hearings on Capitol Hill are over, a White House official said yesterday. "We want this to be a speech that continues the healing process," the official said. "We hope it will give the president the opportunity to put in perspective the hearings and the whole Iran-Contra matter, to talk about accountability and to then lay out steps being taken to deal with what went wrong," he said.

IT'S QUITE unfortunate that the statute of limitations has run out for two young women, now police officers, who claim that their stepfather sexually abused them. Bringing a case to closure can help victims heal, no matter how much time has passed. There are hundreds of cases each year in Philadelphia of children abused by someone they know. The Philadelphia Children's Alliance works to ensure that when there is an allegation of sexual abuse, there is a coordinated, efficient response that puts the child's best interests at the forefront.

Villanova point guard Jonathan Haynes, who had surgery on his right foot Monday, will be sidelined indefinitely, the school said yesterday. The university also confirmed that team orthopedic surgeon Robert Good had inserted a screw into a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal, a bone on the inner side of the foot. The screw is intended to speed the healing process. The stress fracture, first diagnosed on Nov. 1, is unlikely to heal completely by the end of the season, but Haynes might be able to resume playing anyway.

The Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics, is in an area seemingly unaffected by Tuesday's earthquake. The roadway around the stadium was solid in both directions, and a cruise around the parking lot showed no damage to the pavement. Inside the 48,219-seat ballpark, groundskeepers mowed the outfield and groomed the base paths at the same time workers at Interstate 880 continued to look for possible survivors and bodies of those who had died in the collapse of the two-tiered road.

Lamont Webb's boyhood friend didn't know that Webb was a convicted child molester. He hadn't heard that Webb, 36, was on parole for having sex with a young boy in 1989, said Assistant District Attorney Brian Hood. So the Nicetown man didn't think there would be any problem allowing Webb, a motorcycle repairman, to take his 12-year-old son dirt bike riding in New Jersey, or having him spend some nights at Webb's North Philadelphia home. Webb betrayed the man, said Hood.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - When he started out as a Penn State assistant coach in 1979, Tom Bradley didn't figure that fulfilling a dream to become head coach at his alma mater would begin under such an extraordinary circumstance - a child sexual abuse scandal. Bradley found himself in the center of a firestorm when he was named interim head coach Wednesday night immediately after the board of trustees fired Joe Paterno. He appealed for "class and dignity" from players, students, and fans, and said he was proud of the way they acted before and during Saturday's game against Nebraska.

I'm ripping up my Lars Von Trier fan club card. With the brutal, and brutally pretentious, Antichrist , the Danish provocateur and founder of the Dogma school (rules to make your movie by) has finally gone too far. Fusing the carnal intensity of Breaking the Waves (I was with it) with the horror-movie schtick of his Danish TV series The Kingdom (I was with that, too), and piling on religious symbolism, cloaked misogyny (in the guise of feminist doctrine) and graphic scenes of genital mutilation and torture, Von Trier has delivered a movie designed to abrade and repel.

IT'S QUITE unfortunate that the statute of limitations has run out for two young women, now police officers, who claim that their stepfather sexually abused them. Bringing a case to closure can help victims heal, no matter how much time has passed. There are hundreds of cases each year in Philadelphia of children abused by someone they know. The Philadelphia Children's Alliance works to ensure that when there is an allegation of sexual abuse, there is a coordinated, efficient response that puts the child's best interests at the forefront.

For the millions who've torn a tendon - from the bagel-slicing homeowner who cuts his hand open to the pitcher who wrecks his rotator cuff by throwing one too many fastballs - the healing process generally results in scar tissue. That means a joint that's less flexible and not nearly as strong. Many patients, once recovered from a tendon injury, will tear it again. But when tendons are damaged in a fetal mouse, they grow back almost like new. In a recent breakthrough, researchers found that this occurs even when the fetal tissue is transplanted into an adult.

Afleet Alex will not compete in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 29 or in a prep race scheduled for Friday at Belmont Park, according to a statement released yesterday by his trainer, Tim Ritchey, and veterinarian Patricia Hogan, who performed surgery on the colt in July. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner had a screw inserted in his left front ankle during surgery at the New Jersey Equine Center in Clarksburg, N.J., on July 27. The aim of the procedure was to aid in the repair of a hairline fracture.

Call it the rebranding of Jim McGreevey. Two and a half months after leaving office, following one of the most stunning resignation speeches in American political history, New Jersey's former governor is beginning to build on his resume as he seeks a new path. McGreevey, 47, has planned trips to visit people living in poverty in Appalachia, Mississippi, and a barrio in Los Angeles, said his friend and employer, State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union). A speaking engagement is also scheduled at Harvard University, he said.

A somber Marcus Camby returned to the New York Knicks yesterday, still struggling to cope with a family tragedy that has consumed his life for the past three days. Making his first public statements since his mother and two sisters were held hostage at their Connecticut home on Monday, the Knicks' center acknowledged that preparing for tonight's playoff game against Toronto was emotionally difficult but ultimately therapeutic. "I'm just trying to get through this tragic situation," Camby said.

Sorry. That's the word the 76ers' George Lynch and Aaron McKie hope to hear from John Croce, the physical conditioning coach who was forced to resign after being caught on videotape taking money from Allen Iverson's pants in the locker room during a game on the road. That's the word Lynch and McKie feel could bring closure to a painful situation involving the younger brother of Sixers president Pat Croce. Lynch and McKie discussed it after practice Sunday at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and felt it would be best to forgive John Croce and allow all parties to get on with their lives.

Allen Iverson can run, but he can't explode off his left leg. And until he can, he likely will remain on the sideline. That included last night against the Phoenix Suns, when Iverson - rehabilitating from a left hip pointer - was not available to the 76ers for the fifth time in the last six games. It might well include Monday night's home game against the Milwaukee Bucks, for which he is listed as "doubtful. " Iverson's injury includes a small tear in a muscle connecting to the pelvic area.

In situations where many people feel uncomfortable, George I. Bustard Jr. feels called to be present. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he comforts individuals burdened by grief, parents stressed about children, and couples struggling to hold marriages together. Responding to cries for help is his job and vocational choice as director of the Pastoral Counseling Center at Springfield. "It's inspiring and heartening because it's amazing to see when people have a desire to change and to work patiently how much they can accomplish," Mr. Bustard said.