The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 1/5/23 with Dr. Kannen

Aaron: Pat and Aaron Show 95.3 WDAE and AM620. Let’s go now to the Friendly Kia DAE hotline. It’s time for the Pat and Aaron Show Injury Report presented by the Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. Joining us on the friendly Kia DAE hotline, Dr. Jeffrey Kannen. Welcome back to the show, Dr. Kannen.

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: Hey, guys. Thanks for having me.

Aaron: Well, let’s start with this. It was just horrific what we saw with Damar Hamlin suffering cardiac arrest on the field after tackling Bengals’ receiver Tee Higgins. He was hit in the chest, got up after the tackle, and then he collapsed. His heartbeat was restored on the field. First I want to ask you, Doctor, can you tell us the difference between cardiac arrest and a heart attack?

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: Cardiac arrest is where the heart basically stops beating and it can be caused by multiple different things, usually an irregular heart rhythm. The difference between that and a heart attack is a heart attack is due to a blockage in an artery which supplies the heart with blood. When you block the artery, it can cause the heart to lose some of its blood supply. That’s the difference between the two.

Pat: Let me ask you this, because it’s so confusing as a sports fan to see this happen, and it looked like a pretty average hit, a pretty average tackle, and I’ve heard the explanation of how this could happen if there weren’t underlying issues as far as the impact at a right time in the rhythm creating this. I’m just curious, how is it that we’ve played football for almost 100 years or whatever, I think over 100 years now, we see thousands and thousands of hits every week and this has never happened before. I’m so confused, how is it possible that if you hit somebody at the exact right time that they could go into cardiac arrest but we almost never see it?

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: It’s a very rare event because it has to be timed up exactly for a certain time when the heart is beating, and unfortunately, that happened for him, and it has happened before for players in other sports too. The risk is low but the risk is still there with any high-impact sport. The NFL has lots of different ways to help mitigate these risks. They have pads, they teach proper tackling, they have rules against tackling incorrectly. Then they have lots of people on staff who are trained to help deal with these kind of situations and they were thankfully able to be there and get him taken care of pretty quickly.

Aaron: Bucs’ center, Ryan Jensen, we’re all waiting for him to come back and anticipating his return. He’s been out since July 28th where he hurt his knee. Now, we didn’t really find out much about what happened to that knee, didn’t require any major surgery. In anticipating that we’re going to get him back here in a couple weeks, what do you think the injury possibly could have been, the extent of it?

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: I don’t know the specifics, but-

Aaron: Nobody does.

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: -I suspect it could have been a ligament injury. If it was a complete ACL injury, then that would usually require a longer recovery, and if you do have a partial tear in a ligament, that can sometimes take several months to heal and then also rehabilitate afterward. That’s what I suspect probably happened.

Pat: When you see guys going through the rehab process and it comes to getting back on the field of play, whether it be football or just about any other sport, one of the biggest issues for guys outside of that actual injury is the fact that they don’t have the same kind of capacity when it comes to energy. They’re not in what they call right “football shape.” How long do you find that it usually takes someone once they’re able to run on a knee injury before they’re not “football shape,” because not all of us play football, but before they’re back to basically their regular capacity when it comes to athletic activity?

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: Good question. Each person is a little bit different. It depends on their level of conditioning prior to the injury. You tend to lose your conditioning level pretty quickly after an injury, so it can take twice or three times as long to get that back, but the higher level you are, it depends on the player and how well their conditioning was prior, but it usually takes about twice to three times as long to recover.

Aaron: The Pat and Aaron Show Injury Report presented by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with Florida Orthopaedic Institute, providing you access to one of the top orthopedic programs in the nation. Schedule an appointment today at floridaortho.com. Once again, floridaortho.com. Dr. Kannen, thanks so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it.

Dr. Jeffrey Kannen: Absolutely. Take care.

Pat: Thanks, Doc.

Aaron: There you go. Floridaortho.com, they are the best over there, so if you’re dealing with an injury, certainly, they are the people to see a location near you.