Kenny Wilson...

My youngest son was in the 5th grade when he broke his. One of his friends fell on him at school. He was in like a traction device for 26 days. Screws put in both sides of his knee to be able to attach a cable to keep his leg straight from the hip to the knee and a strap around the ankle. So he laid on his back that way to keep the leg in a L-shaped position. It was broke close to the hip. He was in a wheel chair for another month, and then crutches. It was a long recovery. He was a good baseball player but never played again because he told me he was afraid he might break it again, and never wanted to go through that again. It is a serious break if broken at different places on the bone, I guess. Lets hope Kenny W. recovers enough to play again.

GBR!!!

 
I always thought that Kenny ran hard. Hopefully he can play. The more competition the better. May the best man win.

 
Big Willie,

I mangaged a large moto cross team for one of the major manufacturers. I managed an Olympic level mountain bike team. I know what a broken femur is. My son had one. And labored in the same scenario you described. But that was 24 years ago. Now if an athlete or anyone for that matter has reached 95% of the their growth potential, they put a rod in. And are up and walking within two days, at that point with crutches of course. But are no longer placed in traction for months or body casts. This is no longer the career ending break that it used to be. Normally the career ended, because of the life after the break, total immobilzation for months gets your attention. Most top sports doctors believe the quicker the use the quicker the blood is flowing, the quicker the healing. See articles by Dr. Glen Almquist.

Herian's break was a compound fracture, and when it happened I stated it would most likely end his career. It is more mental than anything. I have only had one rider return to 100% after a compound fracture. Something about seeing your bone sticking out of your body, gets an inner attention that normal breaks don't.

I would agree the femur break could end anyones career due to the pain, but most top athletes are back very quickly. Some never have any problems with it. My son's healed very quickly was back racing with in 6 months, but his broken leg grew more than the other one. It is now causing him some problems and wears a lift because of it. Not much, but it had a lasting affect. He was able to return to motocross and win numerous National and World events.

 
17,

Yes for young kids the situation is still the same. I was speaking of football players that have reached their growth maximum.

I know the pain you went though, It happened to my son when he was 12, and it is just as you described it. They will not put a rod in when the the growth plates are open. We went through the same deal and the muscle spasms are the worst. Big muscles equal a lot of torque and pain. I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life than I did for Scott, his best buddy broke his at the National Championships the same year. Both returned to National competition, Kyle is still racing at 39 years old.

 
I agree with some of everyone's opinions and disagree with some........I think that if nothing else, this discussion obviously shows that every situation and athlete is different. We all have our own examples and experiences, and they vary tremendously...... some of you have been around "career" ending femur breaks, no -rods inserted into femurs due to open growth plates, long tractions, etc..... Everyone's stories are VALID and obviously true situations....... This fall, I had a 15 year old sophomore break his femur on the last Friday in August during our 1st football game. Complete break, kid not done growing (but break wasn't near growth plate, which was a great concern)..... initially, Dr.s thought he would miss basketball, track, and maybe summer baseball.....in fact, the ER nurse the night of the injury said that he may not play football next yr... (sounds a lot like "most" of your guy's experiences), but, this kid had a rod inserted, screws, etc.., crutches for 8 weeks, walked with a pretty good limp for 5 additional weeks....but was playing and starting baksetball by Jan. 10... not quite full speed, but close.... I am not letting him long jump in track because of the impact through the leg, but he will run and play baseball at full speed.

Point being, a broken femur, although a possibility, does not necessarily means the end of anyone's athletic career by any means. Yes, this may be the exception to the rule, but I bet there are more success stories than we know...

 
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skersfan said:
Big Willie,

I mangaged a large moto cross team for one of the major manufacturers. I managed an Olympic level mountain bike team. I know what a broken femur is. My son had one. And labored in the same scenario you described. But that was 24 years ago. Now if an athlete or anyone for that matter has reached 95% of the their growth potential, they put a rod in. And are up and walking within two days, at that point with crutches of course. But are no longer placed in traction for months or body casts. This is no longer the career ending break that it used to be. Normally the career ended, because of the life after the break, total immobilzation for months gets your attention. Most top sports doctors believe the quicker the use the quicker the blood is flowing, the quicker the healing. See articles by Dr. Glen Almquist.

Herian's break was a compound fracture, and when it happened I stated it would most likely end his career. It is more mental than anything. I have only had one rider return to 100% after a compound fracture. Something about seeing your bone sticking out of your body, gets an inner attention that normal breaks don't.

I would agree the femur break could end anyones career due to the pain, but most top athletes are back very quickly. Some never have any problems with it. My son's healed very quickly was back racing with in 6 months, but his broken leg grew more than the other one. It is now causing him some problems and wears a lift because of it. Not much, but it had a lasting affect. He was able to return to motocross and win numerous National and World events.
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Still does not matter. It takes 3 months just for you to resume normal activities (just to get off of crutches) for most, regardless of what you think you have read. There is no way you have seen anyone riding motocross a month after having broke their femur. It's impossible and no doctor would clear someone for that type of activity, nor would the person be able to do that type of activity.

In Kenny's case, he broke his femoral shaft which required surgery and immobility. Kenny dropped to around 170-175lbs during this time and lost pretty much all of his muscle mass.

Herian was a wuss, plain and simple. He regained his speed, ability to cut and had a full bill of health, but was completely scared of contact after his break. If you want a glaring example, look at the USC game. He caught a long pass down the sideline and a player went at his leg. Instead of running through the tackle, he stops and essentially falls over in fear of the player hitting his leg.

 
I am giving you first hand information. Been there done that numerous times.

Compound fractures that Herian suffered is a total different bird. Most never ever recover from them. Very few humans recover from them. They can walk and run and will always have that fear, nothing like a normal break. As stated, being invovled with Motocross on a National and International level, I have only seen one athlete return to 100% after a compound fracture. Herian is not a whimp, he is pretty damned close to normal. I have never had one, but I know the affects of it, my son has never had one either. It is more of mental problem than a physical impairment. The old head is hard to overcome sometimes no matter how bad we want it to. There were millions of dollars waiting for Mr. Herian if he could have returned.

I was not familiar with the level of break that Kenny had. Must have been a lot worse than what I was told. I heard it was clean break and that a rod was inserted.

I have dealt with compound fractures, femur fractures, humurus fractures, tib vib and assorted ankle and wrist injuries.

Motocross is much tougher sport than football on the body. Most top athletes have broken several bones by the time they hit the big time. Very few make it to the top without major knee injuries either. Most have pain thresholds beyond the normal persons comprehension. It is their love for flying that gets them I think. These are gladiators, a different breed. Eye hand coordination beyond belief, cardio vascular strengths comparable to Olympic Soccer players or mountain bikers. Strenght to weight ratio are on the far out side bounds. And for some insane reason the heal very fast. My son was up at 4 weeks and walking with out a limp in 7 weeks. He spent 30 days in traction, which by the third week according to Dr. Almquist was strong enough to walk on. We had another doctor at the time that kept him the 30 and then wanted to place him in a body cast for 6 more weeks. We changed doctors, he was fitted for a nylon walking brace and walked out of the hospital on it. He wore it two day and it ended up in his locker at school. This was 26 years ago. Medicine has come along way since then.

My guess is that if it is a normal break, not a spiral break most are up and doing quite well by the end of the first month. A crushed area would make things different also.

All that I have been involved with have, and there are numerous ones.

 
skersfan said:
I am giving you first hand information. Been there done that numerous times.

Compound fractures that Herian suffered is a total different bird. Most never ever recover from them. Very few humans recover from them. They can walk and run and will always have that fear, nothing like a normal break.
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i just hearing about a nasty break like that is enough to give a person the willies.

and you can tell from the way he played afterward, too. he might have been physically good-to-go but he had (justifiably) lost some nerve from the break.

he had been burned in a way that i hope NONE of us ever experience.

 
Herian was never the same..........justifiably so, and from what I've been told Wilson just lost so much mass it is going to make it very difficult, not imposible, but a long shot to return.

 
My guess at this time is no. Willie states he has lost a tremendous amount of body mass. That would indicate he had a much more serious break than I had heard. If he has lost more than 40 pounds of muscle it takes qutie a will to get that back. I have not heard much about him, but he will still have another year if he decides to play is my guess. I think Coach Pelini will give him every opportunity to make the team if he is trying. Takes a lot of dedication to overcome what he has gone through, most coaches reward players with that type of heart.

Either way I certainly wish him all the luck in the world in what ever he decides.

 
I've played football and rodden and I gotta say I agree with what skersfan said about moto being tougher on the body. I'd say the injuries and such taken in a year of moto is on par to four of hs football. Later in the first year of ridding I damn near broke my back.

Anyways, I hope wilson recovers well. I don't care if we already have depth in his position I just hate to see a husker player hurt and slow down so much it's next to impossible to get back up on top. Injuries can nag one for quite a while if not taken good care of. So treat that scratch well eh wilson.

 
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