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    • Doctor explains recovery for Detroit Lions DE
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    Doctor explains recovery for Detroit Lions DE

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    The Detroit Lions ultimately broke the Dallas Cowboys’ winning streak, but as fans now know, defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson broke his left leg during the game, specifically both bones below the knee, and underwent surgery to put them back together .

    How long Hutch will be out has been a source of speculation among fans, sportswriters and doctors.

    Hutchinson successfully underwent surgery Sunday evening to repair a broken tibia and fibula at Baylor White Medical Center in Irving, Texas, the team said Monday morning. He is expected to return to Detroit this week and make a full recovery.

    “He’s in good hands right now,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said immediately after the game. ‘He is being taken care of. He stays here. It is clear that he will be absent for a while. That’s tough, man. It’s hard to lose someone like him.’

    Detroitlions.com, the team’s official news source, described the injury as significant. Hutchinson sacked Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and collided with teammate Alim McNeill, which one expert said caused the split.

    A sports medicine doctor who studied game video described the injury as if Hutchinson was hit in the shin with a bat and predicted that Hutchinson would likely have a metal rod in his leg to hold the broken fragments and weld them back together.

    Professor David Fausone, of the department of physical therapy at Oakland University’s School of Health Sciences, told the Free Press that he expects Hutchinson will be on crutches initially, and as the swelling and pain subsides, doctors and therapists will likely discharge the player get moving more.

    They will work on range of motion and ultimately strengthening his leg, the professor said.

    “They did not provide any details about the operation,” Fausone said. “But in my experience, if the average person had this type of injury and had surgery and a rehabilitation process, you would probably want to approach normal functioning within three to five months.”

    Less time perhaps for an athlete.

    But Fausone said it’s unlikely Hutchinson will be back for the playoffs.

    A good recovery prognosis

    Sportswriter Ian Rapoport, who focuses on the NFL, gave his opinion on “

    And dr. Christopher Cooke, an orthopedic surgeon at DMC Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, predicted that Hutchinson could be back on the sidelines with crutches in one to two weeks, and without crutches in four to six weeks.

    Cooke, who was interviewed by WJBK-TV (Fox 2), said patients with similar injuries have returned to jogging after just 10 to 12 weeks. But the doctor said he has not had an athlete fully resume sports activities in less than four to five months.

    Cooke added, “You won’t find a better candidate” than Hutchinson to reinstate.

    Football, a contact sport, is associated with injuries even with significant protective equipment, in part because it is so physical with violent collisions with other players, high-speed movements and sudden, jarring changes of direction.

    Injuries, Chicago orthopedic surgeon Benjamin Domb noted in his online blog, range from muscle sprains and tears to broken bones and head and neck injuries.

    In 1991, Detroit Lions player Mike Utley suffered a playing injury that resulted in paralysis. And last year, Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game in what has been described as sudden cardiac arrest. He recovered and returned to playing football.

    Like a bat to the shin

    As for Hutchinson, he was carted off the field. His leg was put in a cast and then he underwent surgery in Dallas.

    According to Lions, he would not travel back to Detroit with the team.

    Dr. Brian Sutterer, a sports medicine specialist at Southeast Health in Missouri and owner of a YouTube channel, gave some of his thoughts on the injury in a video, based on his expertise and what he saw during the broadcast.

    According to Sutterer, it appears the defensive lineman was thrown around and contact with a teammate’s leg led to the injury. Momentum, combined with force, caused the bone – and possibly both leg bones – to break.

    In the area of ​​the leg that was hit, the doctor said, there was no muscle to absorb the blow, adding that “this is like taking a metal bat, and swinging and hitting it directly in the shin, which ultimately leads to the breakup. ”

    Sutterer said the way the injury is treated will likely depend in part on whether the fracture went through the skin. Infection can be a problem. It is likely, he said, that a rod will be inserted into the Hitchinson’s leg to hold the broken pieces together.

    The doctor said he expects the injury to be a season-long injury, but if all goes well, Hutchinson could be back next year and the injury should not affect the rest of his football career. And, he said, while a broken bone can be a mental challenge for a player, it can be easier to repair medically.

    The cliché is that adversity makes athletes stronger.

    And a few years ago, Hutchinson’s father, an emergency room doctor who was an All-American defensive tackle at the University of Michigan, offered some thoughts on how the sport helped him.

    Chris Hutchinson initially signed with the Cleveland Browns, but after suffering complications from a tetanus shot during rookie camp, he eventually went to medical school, and in a UM article about his work on the front lines saving lives, gave an interesting insight.

    Being in “uncomfortable situations” on the playing field, he said, helped prepare him for other challenges later.

    Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or [email protected].

    (The headline has been updated in this story.)

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