The
ROAD RECOVERY to
Jefferson athletes bounce back from athletic injuries Aafreen Ali and Anuj Khemka || STAFF WRITERS
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wo million injuries. 500,000 doctor visits. 30,000 hospitalizations. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, nearly 30 million American adolescents participate in sports, and a shocking number of these youth athletes get hurt every year. In one moment, one errant step, an athlete’s entire life can change.
Unlike Wadhwa, senior Danny Kim was not immediately aware of a significant injury when he received it. In Jefferson’s second football game of the 2018 season, he was trying to make a tackle and strip the ball from an opposing player when his finger bent backwards and gave way.
“When I first got injured, I really didn’t know how serious it One Jefferson athlete whose life was affected by a sudden injury was--I thought I’d just jammed my finger, and when I went to [Ms. was senior Aaron Wadhwa, who was at a state bhangra team practice Murphy], I actually just wanted to ice my finger,” Kim said. “But they when his knee took a sharp twist. quickly realized that it was something much more than that.” “I jumped up in the air and twisted my leg to the side. I heard a loud pop and couldn’t walk properly,” Wadhwa said.
Heather Murphy, the athletic trainer at Jefferson, diagnosed Kim with jersey finger, a condition in which the tendon in his fingers had ruptured. In Kim’s case, it was the tendon closest to the first joint on After being unable to sleep due to the pain, Wadhwa went to the orthopedic surgeon, where the doctor informed him that he’d torn a his ring finger, causing him to miss most of the football season. ligament in his knee and would need surgery. “It’s sort of depressing in a way, knowing that you won’t play again and watching everyone else practicing, going through all those hard “They went in and operated on it and removed a section of my times in games, while I’m just standing on the sidelines, just cheering knee,” Wadhwa said. “I was on crutches for a while.” them on,” Kim said.