Tiger Woods is likely to undergo a lengthy recovery from his near-fatal car accident in Los Angeles this week, experts say.
Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer and interim chief executive of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, outlined Woods’ “significant injuries to his right lower extremity” in a statement posted to the golfer’s Twitter account Wednesday.
Mahajan said the injuries were treated “during emergency surgery by orthopedic trauma specialists.” Woods suffered “open fractures affecting both the upper and lower parts of the tibia and fibular bones” that needed to be stabilized by inserting a rod into his tibia.
He added that additional bone injuries to his foot and ankle were “stabilized with a combination of screws and pins. Trauma to the muscles and soft tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to reduce the pressure due to swelling. to light up.”
TIGER WOODS TO PREVENT RECKLESS DRIVING LOADS IN CRASH, SAYS LOS ANGELES SHERIFF
A vehicle rests on its side after a rollover accident with golfer Tiger Woods along a road in the Rancho Palos Verdes suburb of Los Angeles on Tuesday, February 23, 2021. Woods sustained leg injuries in a car accident and underwent a operation. authorities and his manager said. (AP Photo / Ringo HW Chiu)
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Dr. William Stetson, volleyball team surgeon for men and women in the US who does not treat Woods, told KABC-TV in Los Angeles that Woods’ recovery will likely be a slow process.
“With such injuries, patients should not bear weight on them for the first four to six weeks,” he said. “You probably won’t be able to put on full weight until three months after surgery.”
And he said it would probably take between nine months and a year “for or any kind of decent recovery from such an injury.”
He added that infection is a primary concern because Woods had an “open” fracture, meaning the bone broke through the skin, and the golfer will likely need additional surgery in the coming months to prevent it.
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Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kenneth Jung, of the Kerlan-Jobe Institute and not involved in Woods treatment, told the Los Angeles Times that injuries to the right foot are common in accidents such as Woods’ because the driver tries to brake with the right foot while left out of the way is.
He said that if Woods injured his Lisfranc joint complex in the center of the foot, which is common in car accidents, it could lead to arthritis.
“That would worry me not just about golf but the future in my life,” he told the Times. “That would manifest as pain and stiffness in the joints of the foot.”
Dr. Gregory Tennant, another orthopedic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente, agreed that Woods probably wouldn’t be “walking around for a while,” especially since he recently underwent back surgery for the crash.
“Trauma is never really an isolated event,” said Tennant. “It is not uncommon to identify injuries – even significant injuries – days later as the first high-energy injuries are dealt with.”
Stetson said he has seen other top athletes rejoin after serious injuries and he did not want to count Woods.
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“He just has a long, long, long road ahead of him and so I would ask everyone to be patient with him and pray a little for him,” he told KABC. “We want him to return to his great game of golf and a great life.”