Physical Therapy and Non-Common Injuries

Physical therapy has been an effective method of treatment for many athletes that are recovering from injuries.  When athletes are injured while playing sports, they usually injure their shoulders, knees, elbows, or other parts of the body.  Most of the time athletes can recover from their injury and successfully go on to return to the game they love. Even years after surgery, they can continue to live great and healthy lives long after their playing days are over.  Unfortunately there are things that happen on and off a playing field that can produce devastating injuries that can not only take an athlete away from the game they love, but also strip them of the ability to live a normal life.

Chad Jones

Chad Jones is a former two sport athlete at Louisiana State University (LSU).  Jones starred on the gridiron at safety for the LSU football team from 2007-2009.  As a reserve safety and special teams player in 2007, he helped the tigers win the National Championship; in 2009, his first full year as a starter, Jones became an all SEC player.  Jones enjoyed similar success on the baseball team as a pitcher and outfielder.  Jones helped lead the baseball team to a national title in 2009 and even got drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2010 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft just weeks after being selected to play for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL).26  Jones definitely proved to be an elite athlete with rare abilities that had the option of having a dream job on not one, but two professional sports teams, a feat that could have put him with the likes of a Michael Jordan, Deion Sanders, and Bo Jackson.

The Injury    

Unfortunately for Jones, his hopes and dreams of being a great professional athlete never came to fruition.  Jones got into a very deadly single-car crash when he drove his SUV into an electric pole.  “The pole cleaved through the front, snapping the front axle and shooting it through the floorboard like a spear. It scraped the flesh from Jones' left heel, shattered his lower leg and punctured his left thigh, gouging a large chunk of his quadriceps.”27  Jones’ “tibia and fibula were shattered in several places. Large sections of his skin were peeled from the leg, exposing muscles and ligaments. Veins and nerves were sliced, and a chunk of muscle hung from his fractured heel.”27  Jones nearly lost his leg and his life.  The surgeons worked on his leg for six consecutive hours and managed to prevent Jones from becoming an amputee.  

Recovery

Jones did most of his rehab at Southern Orthopedic Specialists in Louisiana under the supervision of a physical therapist by the name of John Moran.  Moran and his team helped Jones get his range of motion back in his leg and also helped him gain back his quad and hamstring strength.  After months of strenuous strength training and stability exercises, Jones began to work on his walking on a treadmill as well as in a pool.  As he continued to gain strength he eventually started jogging in an anti-gravity treadmill.28  Eventually Jones began to jog and run on land then began doing defensive back drills in hopes of being able to tryout for a spot on an NFL roster.

Conclusion

Physical therapy is a field that has helped numerous athletes return to the sport that they love.  Jones and many other athletes at all levels have benefitted greatly from seeing a therapist after suffering from an injury.  It has been a cornerstone in the world of athletics and will continue to be for a long time.  

References

26Chad Jones Bio. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=785341

27DeShazier The, J. (2011). Chad Jones' miraculous recovery on track to becoming even better. Retrieved April 17, 2016, from http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2011/10/ex-tiger_jones_miracle_appears.html

28U. (2012). Always A Fire | Chad Jones Documentary. Retrieved April 17, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xsVaq2zSg