CURRENT AGE: 17
CURRENT AGE: 15
DANGEROUS SPORTS
Katie Bouchard, 18, dreamed of being a ballerina. Zach Saunders, 18, always wanted to play football. Neither thought an injury would change these goals.
"Since I can remember, I always, always wanted to play football,” said Zach, a running back at
A week before Halloween, Zach was warming up by running some plays before a game when he felt a “pop” in his knee. He lost his balance and fell. A doctor who was at the game examined him and didn’t notice a problem. Three weeks later, though, his knee was still giving out. An MRI showed he had a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), one of four ligaments that hold the knee together. He needed surgery.
"I was devastated pretty much because it was my senior year, right at the end of football season, maybe the last time I’ll ever get to play football, and I’m sidelined because of an injury. And I hadn’t been injured my whole life since fourth grade, never missed a game or anything because of an injury," said Zach.
Unlike Zach’s injury, Katie's progressed gradually. A senior at
She first started having pain in her left knee during the summer of 2006. "I had been dancing over 60 hours a week, and it was basically my life,” she said. “I knew something was wrong, and I was kind of afraid to go to the doctor.”
When she did see her doctor, she learned that the right side of her femur had decayed and fallen apart due to stress. This condition is known as osteochondritis dissecans and in Katie’s case required surgery.
Injuries are particularly common in dance as knees, legs, ankles and feet are subject to overuse. According to the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, up to 80 percent of dancers report injuries at some stage in their careers.
Annette Seabrook, a therapy program manager at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, has seen a range of injuries in young athletes but has focused on morecatastrophic injuries, such as damage to the spinal cord.
Seabrook believes any sport can be dangerous if athletes don't use proper techniques and equipment. In her opinion, a dangerous sport is one in which participants have little control over what happens.
"Football can be dangerous ’cause you’re trying to hit people as hard as you can, but you’ve got protective gear and you’re taught correct techniques,” she said. “But I think when you put yourself in situations where there’s not a lot of safety controls, or things happen outside of your control, to me that’s what makes it dangerous.”
To Seabrook, athletes are most in danger when they are being reckless, such as playing a physical game of pick-up basketball or rock climbing without safety equipment.
Neither Zach nor Katie was being careless or negligent. Zach’s injury occurred suddenly but probably resulted from a history of wear and tear. Katie’s, too, built up over time.
"I think the amount of stress that dancing requires on your body definitely makes it dangerous,” Katie said. “Also, the aspect of pointe in ballet, basically wearing like hard shoes, where you go up on your toes, that is also very dangerous for your body. It’s very easy to get sprains and broken toes and all that."
While sprains and broken bones may heal quickly, Zach's and Katie's injuries required surgery and physical therapy. Katie has been in physical therapy since 2006 as a result of her surgeries, her most recent one requiring her to recuperate in a wheelchair. She has done electrode therapy as well as her current physical therapy, which include strengthening and flexibility exercises.
The effort seems to be paying off. “My doctor pretty much explained to me after this third surgery that the chances of a good to very good recovery are in about the 90th percentile, so it’s actually a very good chance of recovery and hopefully getting back to dance,” she said.
Zach does physical therapy for two hours, six days a week, including a variety of strengthening exercises such as jogging and one-legged biking. While his ACL is not fully recovered yet, he said his doctors have said his knee should be back to 100 percent functionally around June, and he could try to play football this summer.
Time away from football and dance has been a bittersweet for both. Zach has been focusing on pole vaulting, which he has done since his sophomore year. He hopes to compete next year at Purdue or
Katie has expanded her interests far beyond dance. “I’ve actually found more things that I’m talented at and good at. I mean, before I thought dance was the only thing I had going for me and that I really wanted to go into a career with it. But I’ve actually found things that would become almost better careers,” she said.
In fact, her ordeal has led her to pursue nursing.
"I kind of got into that after I had to deal with all the hospital visits and surgeries and stuff,” she explained. “I was around so many nurses who pretty much changed my life, so I decided that I could definitely be one of those people in someone else’s life."
REPORTERS: Tommy Mangan, 12; Joseph Mangan 11; Becky Mangan, 13; and Izzy Robinson, 11.
Common sense advice for avoiding sports injuries:
For athletes:
Follow the coach’s or other instructor’s guidance
Learn the proper techniques of the sport
Wear recommended safety gear
Understand the risks of the sport
Know the rules
For parents:
Most organized sports-related injuries occur during practices rather than games. Be sure safety precautions are taken at all times.
If you sense a sport’s program or league isn’t safe, intervene and remove your child.
Be sure your child gets proper nutrition. Fasting to “make weight” or overeating to bulk up can have drastic consequences for a young body.
Engaging children in organized sports at very young ages can have drawbacks. Early intense training may delay puberty in girls and increase the risk of injury for all children.
To learn more about sports safety, visit the Web sites and links below:
National Youth Sports Safety Foundation
National Center For Sports Safety
National Athletic Trainer’s Association and North American Booster Association
Y-Press 2009 copyright