Tiger Woods was hurt in the right leg and extensive injury to the right leg in his nasty rollover accident outside Los Angeles.
Doctors at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center described Golf’s great “orthopedic injuries” in a statement released after his emergency surgery on Tuesday.
Woods, 45, now faces a long road to recovery, including prolonged physical therapy and more operations in his shattered leg, medical experts previously told The Post.
Here we know what we know so far about Woods’ injuries and what he means:
Woods had a “less open fracture”
The Chief Medical Officer at Harbor-UCLA, Drs. Anish Mahajan said Woods had “open fractures” in his right tibia and fibula, which are bones directly below the knee.
“Commended” means that the bones were broken into more than two pieces and “open fractures,” or “compound fractures,” occur when a bone fragment pierces the skin.
According to experts, these types of fractures are usually more prone to infection and take longer to heal.
Mahajan said that to treat the break, doctors had to put a metal rod in Wood’s calf bone.
“He is very lucky to be alive,” Dr. Said Kirk Campbell, sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon, Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Langone Health. “It’s just going to take several months to walk.”
Woods hurt right leg and ankle
Mahajan said that apart from a fracture in his lower right leg, Woods also had serious injuries to his right leg and ankle bones.
They were treated by inserting a combination of screws into the pins of the bones to stabilize the fracture.
Woods’ right leg was badly swollen
The PGA legend had “trauma to the muscles and soft tissues” of his leg which required “surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to inflammation”.
This means that his leg muscles became very swollen, surgeons had to cut open tissue around him to relieve the pressure.
Head of Orthopedic Trauma for Special Surgery in the Hospital, Dr. William Rikki said that when you break a twig in your hand, you feel that it is a rebirth.
“The muscles around the bone have been hurt and injured,” Rikki previously told The Post. “The muscle that is uprooted and injured – it’s like sausage with a lining on it.”
To overcome the pressure, surgeons would have to cut the tissue surrounding the muscle – which would likely require more surgery down the road for Woods.
“It either takes multiple surgeries to close the muscles, or sometimes you need a skin graft to cover the muscles,” Rikki said.
Will Woods be alright?
Medical experts have told The Post that it may be some time before Woods also thinks about running again.
“You are talking about foot, ankle, foot, tibia”, dr. Said Andrew Brief, an orthopedist with the Ridgewood Orthopedic Group in New Jersey.
“It can be a challenge to walk properly, return to professional sports.”
Ricky will face a year of hospital-specific surgery, anticipated Woods rehabilitation and physical therapy, which focuses on restoring his mobility, range of motion and strengthening his calf, ankle and leg muscles.
“I don’t know Tiger Woods personally, but everything I see and read about him is a fairly inspired person,” Rikki said. “If anyone can [rebound,] It will be that but it is going to be a fight. “
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