Always a Wasp
General Category => Wasps Rugby Discussion => Topic started by: Brandnewtorugby on January 04, 2020, 11:31:02 PM
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Worcester posted this update;
https://warriors.co.uk/2020/01/04/michael-fatialofa-update/ (https://warriors.co.uk/2020/01/04/michael-fatialofa-update/)
Really hope this plays out ok for him and his loved ones.
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Staying in hospital another night.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/50999557
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I fear that when there is an update on what his condition is, it's not going to be good news.
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I fear that when there is an update on what his condition is, it's not going to be good news.
My thoughts exactly. If his scans were clear, and he was symptom free he'd already be out.
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It's all reminding me of Jules Bianchi's accident and the lack of news for 30hours after the crash. A friend of mine used to play for Worcester's womens team and is friends with one of their physios. She hasn't been able to find out anything and has mentioned the P word to me. St Mary's is not exactly the first choice hospital from Allianz Park and I see they have a spinal unit specialising in compression injuries.
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All our thoughts are with him and his family. I haven't seen the injury but I take it was an accident?
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Really worrying news, and subsequent lack of news more worrying still. Here's hoping for a full and speedy recovery. Thoughts with him and his family and friends and all at Worcester.
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I haven’t seen it, but supposedly his Wife posted on Instagram to say that he doesn’t have any feeling from the neck down at the moment. Everything crossed for him and his Family.
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Having watched it there was no foul play at all. He took the ball into contact and looked like he was trying to go low to avoid being driven back.
It didn't look good, and the fact he's not been released suggests a possible spinal cord injury. Hopefully not a permanent one.
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Having surgery to relieve pressure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51014248
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"The 27-year-old remains in intensive care at St Mary's Hospital in central London after sustaining bruising and swelling on his spinal cord.
He will undergo surgery on Monday evening to relieve the pressure caused by the bruising."
He probably has 'central cord syndrome' with a congenitally narrow spinal canal. If he was unstable/bleeding the surgery would have been done urgently.
St Mary's is the 'local' major trauma centre for Allianz Park.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51014248
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Success means he is not worse than before. If he has a cord injury [and that is the only reason for operating from the information we have] then he has a 1-2 year recovery time, and will likely have some residual weakness typically in the hands. No more rugby sadly.
It could have been much worse.
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Says op was to relieve pressure.
Either way, wish them all the luck in the world.
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Success means he is not worse than before. If he has a cord injury [and that is the only reason for operating from the information we have] then he has a 1-2 year recovery time, and will likely have some residual weakness typically in the hands. No more rugby sadly.
It could have been much worse.
I was hoping you would comment on this, thank you. Do you think he is likely to regain a good level of function? Or could it still be that he has a signifcant permanent deficit?
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VV do you want to post something in his thread on the warriors forum from us all?
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If he has no fracture or dislocation, then the injury is either compression or hyperextension. These tend to cause 'central cord syndrome' whereby the recovery is better in the legs [and bladder/bowel/sexual] than it is in the arms/hands. The cord continues to swell post operation hence the understandable pressure to 'decompress' which is not of proven benefit.
Some will make a complete or near complete recovery - this is not predictable at this stage. In the first 48 hrs or so the cord can shut down completely [spinal shock] and then there is a sequential recovery, so having no sensation in the first 1-3 days is not necessarily a sign of catastrophic injury.
Thankfully these injuries are relatively rare on a rugby pitch.
If a cord injury occurs on a pitch and is associated with a dislocation or a fracture, compressing the cord, the surgeon has less than 6 hours to decompress and stabilise the spine - i.e. the cord will 'die' if denied oxygen for 6 hours. Everytime I see the 15-30 mins spent on the pitch side i feel like I am going to have a stroke. Check the airway, put on the hard collar and get them to hospital. It takes an hour to do an MRI, probably 30 minutes to get a CT, and then there is the equipment to organise, careful intubation, and often a combined anterior and posterior operation is needed before the cord is decompressed. Anyone with a neck/spine injury and a neurological deficit that needs urgent surgery, needs to be in an operating theatre within 4 hours.
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VV do you want to post something in his thread on the warriors forum from us all?
That's a good idea, I tweeted on Warriors thread about it from this site, but a post there is a great suggestion. I'll get on to it right away!
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Bacdoc, that's facinating, I didn't know there was a 6 hour window, I assumed once the cord was damaged that was it.
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The difference is between primary injury - the impact, and secondary injury caused by compression/ischaemia [poor blood flow].
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Thank you VV on my behalf for posting on their site and thank you backdoc for explaining (although I'm whincing reading your explanations).
Didn't a Saints player suffer something similar last season against Tigers?
He chased a kick-off and miss-timed his tackle..
I'm struggling to think of his name.. I think he was a centre (australian?) .. he ended up with limited mobility on one side of his body.
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Thank you VV on my behalf for posting on their site and thank you backdoc for explaining (although I'm whincing reading your explanations).
Didn't a Saints player suffer something similar last season against Tigers?
He chased a kick-off and miss-timed his tackle..
I'm struggling to think of his name.. I think he was a centre (australian?) .. he ended up with limited mobility on one side of his body.
Rob Horne got a brachial plexus traction injury- what most players would call a stinger. Happens when the nerves by your bicep get pulled (often by tackling or in the front row). You’d get tingling/weakness in the affected arm for a few minutes/hours but normally resolves fully. Horne has his nerves pulled so hard they sheared away and lost contact with the spinal cord.
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Rob Horne was treated in my hospital. A brachial plexus injury means the nerves have been avulsed [pulled out] of the spinal cord. They don't recover.
A stinger is a lesser injury but same mechanism [more or less].
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Apparently his breating has eased, (which should give us a clue to the level of the injury) and he can now wiggle his toes.
I'm taking that as a good sign as there is clearly some signal getting through.
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Really frightening stuff. Unless you know something about the structure of the spine, you cannot appreciate the complexity and urgency of the need to act PDQ.
As Backdoc knows, I underwent surgery in November for spinal decompression. I was down to 10 minutes walking before my feet started to go numb. There is a point of no return. Thankfully post op all is well and I have made a full recovery.
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https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/rugby-league/mose-masoe-injury-latest-update-serious-spinal-cord-hull-kr-statement-a9281591.html
Hopefully a speedy recovery.
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Further update. Now being moved to a specialist spinal unit from St Mary's.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51369176
A fundraising page has been set up by the RPA's Restart charity.
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/michaelfatialofa
A long road ahead. Very best wishes to him and his family.
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Yep, thanks for sharing the article, hope he can progress in what appears to be a new phase of treatment.
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Recent video of him walking;
https://twitter.com/k_iddon/status/1241106659365306368?s=09 (https://twitter.com/k_iddon/status/1241106659365306368?s=09)
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Wow, faster than Ashton by the looks of it...
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Wow! That is quite incredible from where he was just a few weeks ago. A welcome positive story at these times. True Warrior.
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Watch his hands and arms. Very little movement.
His leg power seems good - it is mostly proprioception that needs to recover/reprogram now.
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That is truly stunning. What’s the medical view ion his recovery? It looks like his leg muscles have almost completely atrophied, so I wonder how much of the rehab is about that and getting the body used to pumping blood round in an upright position again. Fingers crossed that is the focus and a sign that the spinal injury is coming along famously.