University of Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware suffered a brutal injury during a game last night against Duke, leading some people to speculate that it was one of the most gruesome injuries in sports history. Is that true?
It depends on your definition of gruesome. Certainly, Ware’s
injury was horrific. After he leapt to try to block a shot, Ware fell
on his right leg, breaking his tibia in two places and forcing the bone
to jut six inches out of his leg. Ware has a lengthy recovery in front
of him, but his injury won’t be career-ending, according to Louisville
sports medicine director Fred Hina. A doctor at Indiana University
Health Methodist Hospital, where Ware was treated,told the Indianapolis star that injuries involving protruding bones are rare in sports; they are more common in car accidents.
One of the most famous sports injuries was sustained by Joe Theismann, who contacted Ware on Sunday to offer his sympathy. Theismann’s athletic career ended during a Monday Night Football
broadcast in 1985, when the Washington Redskins quarterback suffered a
compound fracture in his leg after being tackled by New York Giants
linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
Some injuries that may not look so bad on the field can have even
more debilitating results than crushed bones or bloody gashes. For
example, Darryl Stingley broke two vertebrae and was paralyzed after
being hit by the Oakland Raiders’ Jack Tatum, nicknamed “The Assassin.”
Eric LeGrand became paraplegic in 2010 after suffering a severe spinal
injury; Maurice Stokes fell on his head during a basketball game in 1958
and was in a coma for 12 years before dying at age 36; and Chucky
Mullins, a cornerback for Ole Miss, died a year after a 1989
homecoming-game injury left him quadriplegic.
The year 1989 was a cursed one for sports injuries. Dave Dravecky, a
pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, attempted a comeback after a bout
with cancer, only to break his arm while throwing a pitch. As this Reddit thread points out, 1989 produced one of the most bloody on-air sports injuries. Clint
Malarchuk, a goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, took a skate to the neck
that severed his carotid artery and left him bleeding out massively on
the ice. He was saved by his teammate, who had been an Army medic in
Vietnam. He received 300 stitches. The Sports Network in Canada reported that 11 fans fainted, two had heart attacks, and three players vomited on the ice after witnessing Malarchuk’s injury.
This accounting doesn’t include players who died on the field, many
in the 1900s before safety regulations were put in place. Other sites
have compiled more comprehensive list of famous injuries. Two other Louisville players, one in football and one in basketball, had injuries similar to Kevin Ware’s, and they both play professionally today. So was Ware’s injury gruesome? Yes. But it could have been much worse.
During play, it is quite natural to get injured. As, we well known by the fact that accidents might be occur with anyone and anywhere. So, we should take better precaution before playing and take preventive action while suffering from injuries. In basketball also, we also have found that players are facing different types of injuries and hope while taking preventive precautions, they are able to deal with their injuries.
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