Kevin Ware has been released from the hospital today while doctors have speculated that he may have been injured before a routine jump left six inches of bone sticking out of his leg.
The Louisville’s basketballer tweeted a photo of him walking out of Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis while on crutches, telling his 80,000-plus followers: “Back to my brothers I go.”
Kevin Ware’s release comes just two days after the gruesome broken leg he suffered during Sunday night’s NCAA tournament game against Duke.
Several doctors have floated the possibility that Kevin Ware’s injury was the result of an earlier fracture that he may or may not have known about.
Dr. Rajeev Pandarinath, an orthopedic surgeon at George Washington University Hospital, told the Associated Press that Kevin Ware may have had a stress fracture in the bone before his devastating fall.
He said: “A stress fracture, if you keep playing on it, can lead to a real fracture.”
Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, echoed Dr. Rajeev Panarinath’s assessment.
“He came down hard, landing in an awkward way. That, combined with an underlying bone issue or an existing stress fracture, predisposes someone to this type of injury,” he told ABC News.
Dr. Rajeev Pandarinath also cast doubt on Kevin Ware’s future in basketball, saying: “I believe this is somewhat of a career-threatening injury.
“Even if his bone heals well, the question is will he be able to regain the strength in his muscle to make him be able to jump and have the athletic ability that he had before, and that’s the big question mark. And we won’t know for 9-12 months whether he’s able to come back to basketball.”
Louisville coach Rick Pitino rejected such medical theories, saying there was “nothing prior”.
“Basically his leg went one way and his shoe went another and the bone split. There’s no preexisting thing that makes it do that,” Rick Pitino said.
[youtube 59_ggsLFhww]
