Post created by Cecily
Imagine you’re a quarterback in the NFL. It’s 3rd and 9 with 7 minutes and 56 seconds left in the third quarter. The center snaps the ball to you, and you look left, searching for an open receiver. All of the sudden two defensive linemen come plowing through your offensive line, headed straight for you. As they take you down for a sack, you feel your leg twist so hard that it breaks. Before five seconds have passed, the play is over, and so is your season.
Now I told you to imagine yourself in this situation, but this is the actual story of NFL Redskins (at the time) quarterback Alex Smith. In May of 2020, ESPN came out with an article that recounted the events leading up to his injury, and the battle he faced over a year and a half after his injury.
That one football play didn’t affect just the rest of his season, it affected his whole life. When he was sacked in the fateful play, he actually suffered a severe spiral compound fracture in his right leg. What is a spiral compound fracture you might ask? Well, it is a complete fracture (meaning the bone completely splits into two or more separate parts) as a result of the bone being twisted or rotated. In Smith’s case, the spiral fracture ran from his ankle all the way up to the knee, and both his tibia and his fibula were broken as a result. The doctors put in over 20 screws and 3 plates to keep the bones in place after they lined them up.
Let’s take a look at bone repair before we continue on. Now, after a doctor has set a bone, the body takes charge of the rest of the healing process (this is quite a fascinating process!). When a bone breaks, something called a “hematoma” forms. This hematoma is created by blood from torn blood vessels in the bone and the periosteum (which is an outer wrapping of the bone). The area around the bone swells as a result. After this, something called a fibrocartilaginous callus forms. This is made of collagen fibers that come from cells called fibroblasts. The collagen fibers connect the broken bones together. After this, a bony callus forms. This callus is made up of osteoblasts (cells that form bones) which begin to form spongy bone and structures called trabeculae. Then finally bone remodeling happens. In this final stage, the bony callus is remodeled. All of the extra material on the outside of the bone is removed and compact bone is laid down for the shaft walls. When bone repair is finished, you can run and jump on your bone, good as new!
Hold on, isn’t it incredible how our bones can repair themselves? We don’t have to do anything except hold the bone in place, and our body does the rest! Our bones will literally reconstruct themselves!
Okay, let’s continue on to what happened next. Alex Smith had a slight fever after his surgery, which they said wasn’t uncommon after a major surgery like the one he had on his leg. Everything seemed fine, but then his fever went crazy during the night.
After his fever spiked, they ran several tests. At first, they thought it was possibly a blood clot, but they eventually figured he had an infection. He was septic. Sepsis develops when a person already has an infection in their body. When someone becomes septic, it means that certain chemicals have released into the blood stream. Your body attempts to fight the infection by releasing “cytokines,” along with other bacteria fighting proteins. Cytokines cause inflammation throughout the body by inducing blood vessels to dilate, lowering blood pressure. Because of the inflammation and low blood pressure, organ systems can actually shut down if they don’t get the much-needed blood flow. When systems shut down, this is referred to as septic shock.
Our body is pretty incredible right? I mean, it has literal “soldiers” it sends out to fight infection alongside the white blood cells. But sepsis is a different animal. Your body’s response to infections can kill you! Your probably wondering, “Well what happened to Smith after they found out he was septic?” Well, the doctors knew there was an infection, but they had to find out what it was...
Brace yourself. The situation gets worse before it gets better. After they found out Smith was septic, they were able to find out what bacteria was causing this infection: Necrotizing Fasciitis. If you're like me, I was like, “What in the world is necrotizing fasciitis?!” So, I went and looked it up, so you don’t have to! Necrotizing fasciitis (or NF) is quite a monster of an infection. Not to mention, the name literally means “flesh eating disease” (seriously, can anyone come up with a creepier name for an infection?). NF is caused by monomicrobial NF or several bacteria that infects tissue beneath skin. When these bacteria get in your body, they start to release toxins that destroy the flesh in the surrounding areas. The first symptoms of NF seem like a cold or flu bug. The person could have a fever, chills, sore throat, diarrhea and other symptoms. These symptoms don’t seem like a big deal, but they get much more severe.
When the NF infection advances, it literally kills the tissue it infects, and the surface of the skin surrounding the infected area will become swollen, painful, and turn anywhere from a red color, to a purple, and even a black color as the infection worsens. Then the infected person will start to feel the pain lessen, but this is not a good sign. If the pain in the area of infection starts to go away or lessen without any treatment, then that means that nerves in that tissue are completely dying. In a worst-case scenario, the infected area will have fluid-filled lesions that will burst and drain out their fluid (yuck!). The person’s fever would continue to rise, their symptoms would worsen, and death would be inevitable.
Now here comes the good (or would “least of the bad” be more fitting?) part. Thankfully for Smith, the doctors were able to catch the infection (which never got up past his knee) and save his leg before it was too far gone. They actually weren’t sure if he would be able to keep his leg or not, but they were able to clean all the infection out. After a week of cutting out the infected tissue, he really didn’t have much muscle left, so they took one of his quad muscles and brought it down to his shin. He had to undergo a microvascular surgery, for the muscle to be brought down. “Microvascular surgery” might be a new term to you, as it was certainly new for me. A microvascular surgery is when surgeons take an amputated hand, leg, finger, or in this case, muscle, and reattach it to the body, reconnecting all of the tiny blood vessels. They have to reconnect the blood vessels and establish circulation before the tissue dies, or else it won’t work. This is a very advanced surgery, but Smith came through his surgery just fine (all things considered!).
And so, after nearly 2 years of surgeries, meds, a near run in with death, and finally rehabilitation and recovery, Alex Smith, despite all odds, is back in the NFL, and he played on October 11th for the first time since his injury in 2018. He has quite an incredible story of disappointment, trauma, and determination. He went from fighting for his life with a deadly infection to playing in the NFL again. There is much to be learned from his story, whether that be all the medical information, or the way it challenges your perspective on life. It’s pretty amazing how his body (and his mind) was able to bounce back from such a traumatic experience, but then I guess God made us like this. He made our bodies so advanced, and he displays the miracle of life every time we recover from something. Whether it be the repairing of a paper cut or a raging infection in a leg with broken bones, God shows us his incredible design through our bodies.
Picture Citation:
Staff, T. (2020, April 28). Alex Smith Says Docs Surgically Moved His Quad Muscle Into Shin To Save Leg. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.tmz.com/2020/04/27/alex-smith-leg-injury-picture-washington-redskins/