***Tiger Woods Injuries Are Not Life Threatening***

[DemocratSinceBirth]

[Irish_Dem]

1. Now they are saying no Jaws of Life, and he was able to walk when they got him out of the car.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. I think he was talking. Not walking.

You mess your legs up like that and they aren't ever the same. And you are in constant pain.

[Irish_Dem]

5. I heard them say walking, maybe I misheard.

I broke my leg in two places, and did it twice in one year.
It was a long recovery period, but I am not in constant pain now.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Seat belt saved his life.

[bdamomma]

16. thank goodness

He's going to have a long recovery, and he suffers from back problems too.

You know the money he makes he should of had a driver. Makes sense huh?

[Irish_Dem]

18. With his driving history yes a driver would have been a good idea.

Reports are that he was angry when he left the hotel parking lot and almost hit a car there.
So something was up with him right as he got behind the wheel.

I had several bad falls last year and broke my leg twice, with multiple bones broken.
Required surgery, etc.

The casts and boots are quite heavy and cause knee and back problems.
In fact the boots and casts caused a stress fracture in my knee.
And they caused back problems because of how heavy they are, and they put your whole gait off.

It sounds like Tiger has both legs broken and damaged. He will be in a wheel chair, then a walker, then a cane.
It will be a long rehab for him. He is going to have to learn to walk all over again.
The tasks of daily living are impossible with out help.

And it will all cause a lot of stress on his back and spine.

It is all quite painful and he already has problems with drugs and alcohol, so the pain meds could be problematic.
He is going to need to be careful about that.

[bdamomma]

20. Tiger is going

to need physical and mental health support.

[Irish_Dem]

21. He is going to need a great deal of physical support for months. Longer depending upon the injuries.

And of course he will need mental health support to deal with his injuries and any possible permanent damage and restrictions.

We do not know the prognosis because we do not know the extent of the injuries.

[Irish_Dem]

9. News saying he was not able to walk when police pulled him out of car.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Not with multiple compound fractures he wasn't walking.

I had a spiral fracture in the same two bones 2 years ago. I did not move from where I fell until the ambulances arrived - and the pain was excruciating.

His family's statement:

Link to tweet

In relevant part:

Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia. Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins.
"Trauma to the muscle and soft tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling.

[Irish_Dem]

24. Exactly. I have had a bad year, I have fallen twice and broken my leg and ankle both times.

The initial reports about Tiger were off base, or I heard incorrectly.

But I have had the surgeries and rehab. And my injuries were not as bad as Tigers.
I do not envy him at all. He is going to have a very rough year.
And will have to learn to walk all over again.

With a damaged ankle, mobility is going to be an issue if he wants to play golf again.
If I just squat a little bit, with pressure on my ankle, it still hurts.
And even after extensive PT and rehab I still do not have full mobility with leg and ankle.

And if it is his right leg, I don't see him driving for quite a while.

[Ms. Toad]

25. Fortunately, I recovered pretty easily

I had surgery to insert a rod, but I was back teaching 6 days after the surgery and I didn't need PT. (Someone had to drive me into work, and I had to fight work (in the pre-COVID days) to accommodate my need to work from home so I could spend most of my day with my leg elevated while I graded papers - and could spread my work-day out longer to accommodate naps.) But all in all I had an easy time. (Largely because even though it was 2 spiral fractures, there were not bone chips floating all around, and the crack ended far enough above my ankle that I didn't have to have my ankle rebuilt.)

Even so there is no way I was walking anywhere until after the surgery.

[Irish_Dem]

26. Right. The first two weeks I was out of it after surgery and in a lot of pain.

I could not have worked! Amazing you were able to keep functioning.

[Ms. Toad]

27. I've always healed extremely quickly.

This one was one of two times I've experienced 10/10 pain.

Pretty much every surgery I've had, the day of surgery I can barely wait the full time for my next dose of pain med. And just a regularly, by the second day I pass the time for my next dose wihtout noticing it. Happened again in December with cancer surgery. I could barely wait to take the midnight pill - and the next one I took was at 11 AM the next day. The spiral fracture may have taken a little longer - but I know I still had pills left out of the 20 narcotic pills they gave me.

I would have been confined to bed rest for weeks, had the break been just an inch lower I would have needed plates.

[Irish_Dem]

29. I have had spinal fractures too.

L2 to L4.
Plates and pins.

Yep it was one of the two times I have had 10/10 pain.
I didn't want to get hooked on pain meds, but when I am 8/10 I am going to take it.
I was confined to bed and had to wear a brace for months.

I have osteoporosis and when I fall, bones break.

[Ms. Toad]

30. Ouch.

Fortunately even though I'm on meds that can cause osteoporosis, it hasn't het. I earned my spiral fracture by sliding on black ice, at a pretty rapid pace, going around a corner, when my foot hit a patch of bare pavement and stopped moving. The rest of me didn't.

Take care of yourself! Fractures that require bones and pins and plates are no fun!

[Irish_Dem]

31. I have pins and plates in back, leg and ankle.

I figure my surgeons are trying to make me the bionic woman.

But I am doing quite well. When the weather is good I can walk two miles a day.
And do all tasks of daily living.

[Ms. Toad]

32. My brother had a nearly identical fracture to mine -

He made the doctor take the rod out after a few years. Personally, I'm not sure it's worth another surgery . . .

Mostly they are taking chunks out of me. Most of a rib, the rest of the rib, two hunks of healthy tissue surrounding cancer. Need any spare parts?

(The first hunk of a rib was the other 10/10, because of an incompetent anesthesiologist)

[Irish_Dem]

34. I agree.

I would not have the surgeons do another surgery, besides my rods are holding my spine together.
Taking the rods out, not a good idea.

Sorry about the 10/10 due to incompetence.
I just cannot do 10/10. I have had 10/10 twice and I hope to never do it again.

Geez, my surgeons keep adding metal crap to my body, yours are taking out parts.

Actually I could use a left knee.......
I will swap you one of my ribs for it.

[Ms. Toad]

36. No thanks on the rib -

part of a syndrome/birth defect that turned my arms into eggplants. I'd rather have semi-normal looking arms - although my new franken-arm doesn't look so normal (skin graft over "shark bite."

That anesthesiologist over-medicated me in 2009 then had to give me narcan - wiping out all post-surgical pain relief for several hours after the rib resection. (They won't transport you from the OR with pain meds on board due to the risk of a respiratory emergency en route to your room, so I wasn't allowed any pain relief from surgery until I hit my room - and - ate something (which, of course, somoene forgot to order.) I've had anesthesia close to a dozen times - and everyone - but this yahoo - has always commented on how well I handle anesthesia. As a result, I also was assigned to the anesthesia problem-child unit. While they couldn't directly say he messed up, they did all but connect the last dot for me. I made it very clear he is never allowed to touch me, or anyone I love, ever again.

Unfortunately, they have no way of recording that so he was, assigned to my 12/29 cancer surgery. I had my first ever panic attack when I asked them who the anesthesiologist was. Since I'd never had a panic attack before I had a devil of a time processing the physiological and emotional body slam. They were able to replace him - and if they hadn't been able to it shouldn't have been any big deal to just cancel and come back another day when he wasn't on duty. But it took 2-3 hours before I calmed down and could speak in complete sentences.

[Irish_Dem]

37. I am so sorry.

What a true medical horror story.
This guy should not have a license.
12/29 sounds like a PTSD episode from the trauma of the previous event with this guy.

[Ms. Toad]

38. Absolutely.

I was never - ever - anxious ahead of surgery. The second rib surgery (same doc, different anesthesiologist), the doc had to hold my hand while they put me out. The second anesthesiologist was wonderful, and they made special arrangements to make sure I had pain meds on board for transport to my room. I knew, intellectually, that it was a bad anesthesiologist - not a bad reaction to anesthesia. But knowing intellectually isn't the same as experiencing the norm again after an extreme aberration.

I see my surgeon in a couple of weeks. One of the things I will bring up is whether there is any way to mark my chart so I don't have to go through that again. (The cancer I have is a sneaky, aggressive, critter, so it is very likely that more surgery is in my future.)

[Irish_Dem]

39. Yes let your surgeon know. And make sure you talk to the new anesthesiologist prior to surgery.

I had difficulty after one of my surgeries and I always have a heart to heart with the anesthesiologist
before any new surgery.

There is absolutely no reason for you to have to go to 10/10 ever again.

[Ms. Toad]

40. Unfortunately,

We had a last-minute switch in locations. When we scheduled the surgery initially for the 22nd it was at a separate facility - and they don't share anesthesiologists. But we had to delay due to a slow pathology report, and due to Christmas they consolidated all surgeries at the main campus. Their policy is to assign anesthesologists the day of. I really did try to head this off - but no one knew how, and they were all sure that I wouldn't randomly get assigned an anesthesiologist who works with vascular when I was being operated on by a cosmetic surgeon for cancer.

My goal now is to see if I can find someone to flag my records so that he is never assigned to my surgery again - so I don't have to wait until the day-of to switch away from him.

[Irish_Dem]

41. I think you are going to have to talk to the practice manager.

Or someone higher up in the organization. At least talk with the surgeon.
But it may have to be higher up.

The problem is that usually the anesthesiologists are a separate group, just contracting with the hospital or surgery centers. So the surgeon may nor may not have control.
So you may have to go higher up the chain to make it clear what you want.

I don't like the day of switching situation either.
That is not optimal for your surgery and certainly not good for your PTSD.

[Ms. Toad]

42. I've run into that problem before,

With insurance contending they didn't have to pay the out-of-network anesthesiologists when I had emergency surgery, had no way of choosing my anesthesiologist, and the only in-network anesthesiologists were at a hospital 50 miles away.

I'll have to see what can be worked out. I think here the anesthesiologists, as well as the surgeons, are directly empoyed by the hospital system.

[Irish_Dem]

43. Yes do your homework ahead of time and see what the situation is.

Then see what you can do to get it sorted out.

Right insurance companies are pains in the neck.
Crooked to the core.

[tblue37]

33. 2 broken legs and ankle--probably not walking.

[Irish_Dem]

35. At least not very far.

[helpisontheway]

2. That is good news. Nt

[Demovictory9]

7. good

[mcar]

8. Funny how the story has changed

You wonder if maybe the media should have, I don't know, made the initial report then waited for more concrete news. Just a thought.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Right. Are they that desperate for news they don't verify anymore?

[mcar]

12. Yeah, or at least do the initial report

and then come back when things are updated and verified. Instead of spending 3+ hours breathlessly restating the initial report and speculating on how terrrrrrrrible it could be.

[Irish_Dem]

13. Exactly.

They practically had him in the grave.

[torius]

11. He has 9 lives

He's a Tiger. Glad he'll survive.

[zipplewrath]

14. His career may not

His body was in bad enough shape as it was. Bad knees, bad back, god knows what else. His career may never survive bad ankles.

[Blasphemer]

15. My thought as well. He may be happier if he leaves his career behind.. nt

[zipplewrath]

17. Bobby Jones

Unfortunately I'm afraid he might be "inspired" by the Bobby Jones story. Jones was in a horrific car accident and yet came back from it to win the US Open, while in horrible pain, and then retired. Of course Jones was in his early 30's so...

[speak easy]

19. Not to mention Ben Hogan's head-on with a Greyhound bus in 1949.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

22. Ben Hogan, golf's original comeback story, roared back from his devastating car crash

Golf

Ben Hogan, golf’s original comeback story, roared back from his devastating car crash

By Matt Bonesteel
Feb. 24, 2021 at 3:19 p.m. EST

It’s easy to compare what happened to Tiger Woods on Tuesday to what happened to Ben Hogan in 1949: “Legendary pro golfer suffers horrific injuries in a car crash” applies to both.

Woods, who was involved in a single-car crash while driving on a Southern California road, broke his right leg in multiple places, and surgeons stabilized his tibia and fibula bones by inserting a rod into the tibia. He also had screws and pins inserted into his injured foot and ankle.

{snip}

Hogan broke his collarbone, pelvis, left ankle and a rib when a Greyhound bus hit the car he was driving head-on while navigating a foggy Texas highway; had he not reached over to shield his wife upon impact, he likely would have been impaled by his Cadillac’s steering column and died.

Even the cars themselves, with their crumpled front portions, bear a resemblance to each other.

The similarities between Ben Hogan’s car and Tiger Woods’ car after their accidents...

Link to tweet

{snip}

Matt Bonesteel
Matt Bonesteel spent the first 17 years of his Washington Post career writing and editing. In 2014, Bonesteel pivoted from the newspaper to online and now he blogs for the Early Lead and other Web-based products owned by The Post. Follow https://twitter.com/MattBonesteel

[Generic Brad]

28. Golf has been his life

His golf life is clearly over.