Wizards medical staff issues

[fishercob]

Indu, thanks for your continued research and vigilance on this issue. Keep putting good info in front of Ted. Cheers.

[keynote]

That's scary, scary news right there. How has the guy who butchered Grant Hill's ankle not been blacklisted by the rest of the professional sports community?

[Induveca]

Indu, thanks for your continued research and vigilance on this issue. Keep putting good info in front of Ted. Cheers.

Doing my best. I am encouraged by that article, and knowing he'll read my email. Hopefully it makes them at least consider sending Wall elsewhere. I re-read that article, and noticed Hill had James Nunley at Duke medical center do his ankle replacement surgery.

Ironically after a car accident in the Dominican Republic in the 90s as a teenager, my ankle/leg were crushed/broken very badly. After some initial subpar treatment in Santo Domingo and 10 days of massive swelling, my parents took me up to Duke to have a second opinion. After surgery/rebreaking my leg......and 8 screws and two plates in my right ankle.........3 months later I was as good as new and playing basketball again.

The doctor? And this is pretty crazy, James Nunley! My father actually chose him because he had recently performed surgery on George Bush Sr. and had read about it in Time or Newsweek. The guy literally allowed me to not only walk again but play sports again at a high level. My leg was really really bad....pretty ironic. My hoops obsession has come full circle.

[Dat2U]

Great stuff Indu. Also very troubling. I'm stunned that Myerson is being used by us considering that piece of news. Grant Hill isn't the type of guy just to throw people under the bus like that. For him to say that really means something.

More stuff from Hill's situation:

Hill says he deferred to the Magic's choice of surgeon so that "the lines of communication [between doctor and team] would be better than the first time." The team picked Mark Myerson, the president of the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society, to perform Hill's second and third operations, in Baltimore. "After the third one, Dr. Myerson told me that nothing else could be done," Hill says. "So I went back to Duke."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/w ... z17ge1wp9H

Hill arrived in Phoenix three years ago, for the cut rate of $1.9 million per season, and the day he signed his contract he went through a 2½-hour physical assessment with the Suns' renowned medical staff. On the drive back to his hotel he nearly broke down at the wheel, overwhelmed by the care he finally felt he was getting. Last summer Hill had a chance to sign with the Knicks for more money and the Celtics for what seemed like a better chance at a championship, but he re-upped with the Suns in part for their trainers.

Hill has hired a macrobiotic chef, sees an acupuncturist and has bought into the Suns' innovative corrective-exercise program, in which every player is assessed daily and given exercises to address physical imbalances.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/w ... z17geQ8GNn

[Dat2U]

Some more good reading. This time Jarvis Hayes.

A few games later, Hayes went up for a dunk against the Kings and when he came down, his knee had split completely open. Season over, career threatened. For a year, he hoped things would get better, as he noted, without surgery. Although he won’t blame the Wizards’ medical staff, others have. "He took the high road for what seems to be a poor diagnosis by the Wizards medical staff after the initial fracture," wrote the Washington Post’s Michael Lee last year.

Read more: http://www.netsdaily.com/2008/10/5/1346 ... to-ironman

[Dat2U]

Should Miller have returned to play.

Sometimes the medical staff's job is to stop the players from hurting themselves. Sounds like even Michael Lee was questioning the decision to let Mike Miller return after initially injuring his shoulder.

When Miller returned to the bench, Saunders received word from the team medical staff that he was good to go. "They said he thought he felt pretty good, give him a shot to let him go," Saunders said. "I put him in to see how he was doing. At the time we put him back in, the team was playing good and he was playing good. but when he went down again, I said, 'That's enough.' "

Miller went down in the worst possible fashion. But even before he made that left-handed layup and crashed on his left shoulder after a collision with Miami's Joel Anthony, there was a huge hint that it probably wasn't the best idea to have him on the floor at that point. Miller palmed a rebound with his right hand and didn't bother lifting his left arm. That's not good. After falling on his shoulder, Miller was doubled over and attempted to play defense with his left arm pressed against his body.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 04529.html

[Dat2U]

Gilbert's own complaints. Even he says that he needed to be held back.

"They handled me going off what they had seen before and said, 'You can't lift weights because you might chip a bone,' " Arenas said. "That's their experience. Everybody has theirs. It took me two years to realize that I was a case study.

"If you have a kid that loves basketball, that eats, sleeps, drinks and thinks basketball and all he knows is basketball and he gets hurt and he's your franchise player, you need to hold him back from himself," Arenas said. "If I'm saying I feel good and you know it's supposed to take six months, instead of letting me at four months run ... they should have held me back. Rather than saying, 'Let's let this guy do what he wants and use him to sell tickets' - sometimes you have to protect players from themselves. I don't feel like I got that type of protection.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2009/9/16 ... om-gilbert

[Dat2U]

I'm sure most have seen Etan Thomas' subtle shot at our medical staff:

While on the subject of team trainers and doctors, is it possible to impose a fine or forced firing when a team trainer or doctor consistently misdiagnoses numerous players? Not to call out any names but certain teams (not here with the Oklahoma City Thunder) employ trainers and doctors who regularly make medical mishaps (if that’s a politically correct way of saying it).

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2009/ ... cal-staff/

[Dat2U]

Of course we all know about Javaris Crittenton:

Crittenton is still upset about the medical treatment he received from the Wizards. He had an exploratory surgery last October, but said his situation never improved and he needed another.

"A lot of people think I had one surgery and, 'Oh, it's taking a long time to heal,'" Crittenton said. "If the first surgery was successful, I would have been ready...It didn't go well. They went in from the wrong way and it didn't fix it. I had another surgery to actually repair it."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... ses-p.html

[JonathanJoseph]

Excellent work, Dat2 and Indu

The Wizards (6-16) will likely need more of that spectacular version of Young as they host the two-time defending champion Lakers on Tuesday at Verizon Center. They could possibly be without their three top scorers, with Andray Blatche out because of swelling in his left knee, John Wall "very questionable" with soreness in his right knee and Gilbert Arenas probable after missing practice on Monday with what the team has referred to as "general soreness."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/13/AR2010121305936.html

This is now way beyond a coincidence. This is infuriating. Lots of threads about the players, coaches and the GM, but it seems the medical staff remains by far the biggest problem.

[Induveca]

http://www.nba.com/coachfile/eric_water ... l?nav=page

This is a guy who needs to take the fall for now, our lead trainer. He's obviously not very adept at judging how our guys are feeling coming off injuries. He's been here 6 years, so I think that pretty much sums up his talents in that regard.

Sure you trust a physician's diagnosis, but saying a guy is "Ready to play" doesn't mean 40 MPG. Waters is our liaison between MDs/players/coaches. He's the guy we rely on to examine/rehab guys on a daily basis. If he's not picking up on these compensation injuries, or suggesting we scale back minutes to ease players into major minutes he's failing.

Then again it's the most logical thing to do, and our entire organization has failed at this for years.

[Rafael122]

So Flip said with John's situation, he may never be pain free. That's depressing. Really unbelievable how 10 games in, our medical staff probably played a role in all of this. Our franchise player, 20 years old.

Wizards med staff, gents.

[Wizards2Lottery]

So Flip said with John's situation, he may never be pain free. That's depressing. Really unbelievable how 10 games in, our medical staff probably played a role in all of this. Our franchise player, 20 years old.

Wizards med staff, gents.

I don't understand how they say that tendinitis will chronically bother Wall for the rest of his career. Unless he has a severe case of it, that should never happen.

Put him with the Phoenix medical and training staff and I bet you Wall wouldn't be having these issues.

[keynote]

^
Wow; I didn't see that quote. Link?

[Wizards2Lottery]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... out-a.html

Wall has been dealing with tendinitis since summer league, and Saunders added that the problem might not go away. "If every guy in our league sat out a week because of tendinitis, we might have to forfeit some games, because everybody has some kind of tendinitis, just the way they are," he said. "I don't think, with his situation, that he's ever going to be painfree from that, so what we're going to do is monitor him.

"Some situations, we have to make sure we get it right," Saunders said. "We get him healthy, get him where it's manageable where he can play and play at the high level he needs to play at. No question, when he's not physically right, he can't play at the same level. If can't play at the same intensity, same enthusiasm and aggressiveness, then he's not the player that John Wall is. "

[sashae]

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

Without REST the tendinitis WILL NOT GET BETTER and could potentially lead to a rupture of some kind. I'm dealing with an epic case of ankle tendinitis right now exacerbated by my bike racing, and until race season is over it's not going to get better. Yes, it sucks, but I'd rather have Wall sit and watch TV for 10 games than keep playing and setting himself back further. Idiocy.

[hands11]

One things they do seem to be doing better this year and the MRI and quickly.

Seems they used to wait forever before they would get an MRI. 2-3 week. 2-3 weeks. Then the MRI, ohhh, he is missing a tendon.

With all the bashing on these guys, and they probably deserve it, at least this is happening better.

[Zonkerbl]

Why was Yi approved to play on a knee that obviously was not stable?

[tontoz]

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

Without REST the tendinitis WILL NOT GET BETTER and could potentially lead to a rupture of some kind. I'm dealing with an epic case of ankle tendinitis right now exacerbated by my bike racing, and until race season is over it's not going to get better. Yes, it sucks, but I'd rather have Wall sit and watch TV for 10 games than keep playing and setting himself back further. Idiocy.

Tendonitis is the worst. It can hang around for years in some cases. If he has it now it is a safe bet it will be bothering him the rest of the season.

[Induveca]

I hate our medical staff, but considering there are no tears/breaks etc......even our incompetent guys would have found that tendinitis is indeed the culprit.

Gotta agree with Saunders on this, Wall is soft mentally, or has a very low threshold for pain. Really kills me to say that, but he has missed 10 games looking back with injuries many would play through.

And before everyone calls me foolish, read this whole thread. Should know where I stand on our horrid staff. I put this one on Wall. Making him captain was a bad idea.