A&M’s Roland has surgery on broken leg
December 23, 2009
SEATTLE (AP)—Derrick Roland swung his surgically repaired right leg, the onecontaining three screws and a metal rod from knee to ankle.
With blood oozing through gauze dressing and onto his hospital bed, thesenior leader of No. 19 Texas A&M decided midafternoon Wednesday was the time toget back up.
He grabbed a walker, left Room 627 at Harborview Medical Center for thefirst time on his own two feet and shuffled to a large window just outside hisdoor.
The same defensive stopper and second-leading scorer who the night beforewas running free and soaring to the rim shuffled back. Nausea and dizzinessconsumed him. His hospital bed rescued him.
“Worst walk I ever took,” a sedated Roland said through a groggy chuckle afew minutes later.
Bleary eyed, Aggies coach Mark Turgeon, athletics assistant Dustin Clark andleading scorer Donald Sloan—who’s known Roland since eighth grade in Dallasand considers him a brother—were at his side. The rest of their traumatizedteam flew home Wednesday morning.
The beloved leader the Aggies call “D-Ro” was in what the hospital termedsatisfactory condition about 12 hours after surgery to repair a broken tibia andfibula suffered in a grotesque injury during Tuesday night’s 73-64 loss at No.22 Washington.
The sound of two bones snapping in his right leg echoed throughout ahorrified arena—“we will never forget that sound,” Turgeon said. The sightof bone diverting outside almost 90 degrees below the knee left severalteammates in tears well into Wednesday.
Roland’s college career is almost certainly over. But Dr. Chris Wahl sees noreason why Roland can’t resume playing after rehabilitation that will last wellinto the new year. Wahl is the orthopedic specialist and University ofWashington team physician who rushed onto the court from the stands along withthree other doctors to stabilize Roland.
After performing the 75-minute surgery past midnight and into Wednesdaymorning, Wahl said he will check Roland again Thursday morning.
“He’s a tough kid. He’s doing great,” the surgeon at one of the country’srenowned trauma hospitals said in an evening phone interview from his home.“He’s tired, but that’s understandable. He’s been through a lot.”
If Roland’s wound from the grade 2 open fractures continues to heal andremains infection-free, and if Roland is able to eat food and stand up withoutnausea Thursday, he could be back home in the care of Texas A&M doctors byChristmas. A return to his native Dallas could come a day or two after that,Turgeon said.
Texas A&M has chartered a medical transport plane to take Roland home. TheAggies also flew Roland’s aunt, Betty Cofield, to Seattle late Wednesday.
Wahl said Roland could be putting weight on the leg again in a couple ofweeks, and that in perhaps six weeks “they’ll have trouble keeping a guy likethat off his leg.”
“When he’s lying in there, that’s hard to believe,” said Turgeon,operating on only a couple hours of fitful sleep.
Thousands from around the nation have sent their well wishes since theinjury. Harborview was inundated with over 600 get-well e-mails for Roland sinceTuesday night.
“Physically, I’m sore. And emotionally, I’m kind of hurt for the rest ofthe season and my teammates,” said Roland, who a couple seasons ago played forweeks through a torn labrum in his shoulder.
“It’s just a tough situation, but everything happens for a reason. I’vebounced back from injuries before. I’ll just have to do the same with thisone.”
Sloan cried at the sight of his best friend’s leg and buried his head insidehis jersey as he was escorted to the bench for a team prayer. An Aggies traineralmost fainted from the gory scene.
“I could look up and see a couple of the guys on the bench with hands overthe mouths, so I knew it was pretty bad from looking at their faces,” Rolandsaid.
After a 10-minute delay, Washington immediately went on a decisive, 15-4 runthat turned a one-point game into a Huskies’ win.
Sloan’s mother died two years ago, during the NCAA tournament. He said hewas still able to play with passion then.
“(Tuesday) night, I felt I shouldn’t even have been playing,” Sloan said.
Turgeon has one regret from what he called the most traumatic moment he’sever had in a game.
“If had to do it over again, I would have pulled our guys off the court andsaid, ‘This is Washington’s game.’ We all would have gone with Derrick to thehospital,” Turgeon said.
“The game didn’t matter at that point. It just didn’t matter.”