Ricky's Story Video Transcript

Ok, that was the day of our last two a day. I went through all of the two a days.

And, so we got a break and went home ate lunch, came back to the field. We were about to scrimmage Altar. And so the game went fine, I was playing corner and wing (which is like a receiver/running back) and on the last play of the game we did a sweep where I took it was like a pitch where I went in motion and I caught the pitch. I don't exactly remember the play, but I guess somebody blocked a guy out that they weren't supposed to and I got cut off and I got hit by like four linebackers and I felt something pop. It felt like I just opened my eyes and I just kind of saw my foot like right up here and then I fell down. It didn't hurt at the time but I just screamed because it was kind of shocking. I guess when they rolled me over I was lying on my leg and so they rolled me over and it just kind of fell down. So after that I looked up and there were like five people around me. There was Amy Bernard, a few coaches, both my side, team and the Altar team, and there was an Altar parent who works for the military in like medical (I don't know exactly what he does) but like in the medical field. He was the one that made sure my leg was straight and checked to see if they were even because he said he knew I broke my femur because my leg/this leg was a couple inches shorter than this one which is what the bone was like -- pulled in like that. So they called the ambulance. They didn't know for sure if it was a broken leg -- not everyone knew for sure, they thought it might be dislocated knee or torn ACL or something like that just because my knee bent up, but it bent from my thigh, so I knew pretty well that it was a broken leg. So the ambulance got there and they had to give me morphine on the field because it was such a bad injury and they got me on the cart, which was a lot more painful than the actual break. They had to calm me down and get me to breathe evenly because I was hurting pretty bad. So they got me on the cart, and the hardest part was them lifting up my leg and then setting me down hurt pretty bad. And then they carted me off, which wasn't too bad. Everybody was lined up along the gate talking to me and asking me how I was and asking my mom how she was. Then they got me in the ambulance and that hurt, and it was kind of a bumpy ride to the hospital and that kind of hurt. And then we got to the hospital and my best friend’s mom was there, and so she was with me the whole time. I don't remember exactly what happened at the hospital. I remember laying there and I was really thirsty but I couldn't drink anything because I had to go, they didn't know when they would do the surgery so I couldn't drink anything. The next thing I remember is that they had to put a screw through my shin and they had to get it all the way through and out the other side and they had to tie a string to it and attach it to weights and hang it over the edge of the bed so it would pull my leg down. I don't remember them putting the rod through my shin but I remember them pulling on it and that was probably the most painful part of the accident. And so, I'm guessing after that they took me up to this room and I thought they were going to have to pull on it again, but it didn't hurt too bad, they only pulled it a little bit and they attached it to the weights and then all my friends and family came up to see me. It was some of my best friends from football and my mom was there and their parents were there and I finally got to eat and drink something.

Okay. So after I broke my femur and after I landed on it and fell down the coaches and parents came running out. Amy Bernard was out there and there was a parent from Altar and my best friend's mom came out there and I'm guessing she just shoved and ran onto the field -- she was really worried. And a couple of my coaches and I think one of the Altar coaches were out there and they didn't know for sure if it was a broken femur. They thought it might be a dislocated knee or torn ACL. One of the Altar parents, he works with the military in like a medical field, and he checked to see if one leg was shorter than the other and that's how he knew that I broke my femur and so they calmed me down. I was kind of freaked out and once the paramedics got there they gave me morphine on the field because it was such a bad break and they got me/got my legs straightened out which was painful, and they loaded me onto the cart -- that was the most painful part. And they got me on the cart and took me out and into the ambulance and all the parents and the coaches and the players were lined up on the sideline by the gate watching me leave and they were asking me how I was and giving me positive/telling me all positive things. So the ride to Miami Valley it wasn't very painful, there were a few bumps in the road that hurt. The paramedics were calm and they calmed me down so when we got to Miami Valley they brought me into a room and I waited there, not for very long, and the doctor came in and they told me what they were going to do. They had to to put a screw through my shin -- all the way through and they had to pull it to get my bone, it was pulled like this and they had to  pull the bone so it was where it was supposed to be kinda and they-- I don't remember them putting the screw through my shin but I remember them pulling on it and that was the most painful part. After that was done they took me up to the room where I stayed in through the next two days and all my friends and family came up there to see me and their parents came up there to see me and I don't remember the room too much then, but I remember everyone being there and that was the first time I got something to eat or drink since the middle of the game and it was, I didn't eat very much, I wasn't very hungry actually, surprisingly, but I drank-- I drank some water. Once everybody left I couldn't get very much sleep just because I was a little uncomfortable but that was about midnight.

I woke up and I don't remember that day very much, but I remember them giving me pain medicine, I remember that. The room was really nice and they gave me food. A lot of my friends have brought me food too, so I ate a little of both. I still didn't eat very much that day. I didn't get to drink very much. I had to stop eating early in the day because I've finally got my surgery about one o'clock -- somewhere in the afternoon. They took me down there and I was kind of nervous -- I think my mom was a little more nervous. There were a bunch of my friends there, actually once I got in there a couple of the guys are seniors now they came in to see how I was because they heard about it and wanted to check on me but I didn't get to see them because they showed up after I went in and left before I came back out. But my friends came in there and they gave me my jersey and they took pictures with me with my jersey.  So, it was good, it was comforting. I went into surgery and everything was good, they said it all went fine -- it went very well. I don't remember how long it was, I don't remember the time at all.

So I went in to surgery and I had Dr. Herbenick as my doctor. I found out later that he was the best doctor to have there because he was the very best at treating those injuries and I got that connection because Amy Bernard called him as soon as I left the field saying that this was a very brutal injury and he needed to take my case. And so he did. The surgery went fine and when I came back out everybody was there still -- my friends were there and my mom was there so it was -- it wasn't very bad. The part before it was much worse than the surgery. I was out most of the time until I was out and everybody was there. And then after that, I went back to the room and it went sort of like the rest of the day went -- I ate a little bit and drink a little bit and I can't remember anything else from that day.

The accident happened on Wednesday I think and they came in Friday morning, the day after the surgery, and they told me I was going to be walking on crutches. I was pretty okay with it because it was my second or third day in bed just lying there, so I was ready to get up and getting up from the bed was hard but it wasn't as painful as other parts were. And then, I had to get on the crutches -- they were a little hard to use at first. I'd never been on crutches before that. I walked out of the room, my coaches were there to watch me, actually, not all of them but a couple were. They were there and they watched me walk out of the room and I walked down the hallway and I walked up and down a couple stores actually just to get used to it and that was fine. The stairs were kind of difficult especially going upstairs was more difficult. The one who was watching me and supervising was very nice and she helped me through it and told me everything that was going to happen and what I was going to do but the hardest part was sitting back down. When I sat down I couldn't bend my leg very far. I ended up, when I went to physical therapy I had to really work on trying to bend my leg, bend my knee. So that was the toughest part, but they walked me through it.

Okay. So after that, I went back to my bed and I lay there for a little bit and then my mom -- my coaches left, and there was just my mom and her boyfriend there, and they got me out of the hospital and I got out of bed. It was still difficult but they were all there for me, all the nurses were. And I got into a wheelchair and they took me out of the hospital and then we got in the car and rode back to my house -- which is, it was all right. I still had to get used to the crutches when I got there. I had no real problems at the house. I didn't do much. I didn't walk around very much. I started physical therapy at one of Miami Valley’s satellite offices about a week later, I think,6 and they took good care of me. I think I was on crutches then, but I'm not sure. I want to say I wasn't -- because about a week after I started trying to walk around the house after having a meeting with Dr. Herbenick, he wanted me to be walking around on it.  I was limping but I was walking.  And so I got there, and they worked with me very well and she told me how I could prevent the limping or at least lower it and then they, she worked on -- the first visit was the most painful one because they had to work on bending my knee and that was pretty hard. I didn't do much but talk to her and tell her what happened and how my pain was. It went well and I went out of there feeling a little better about it.

I went to the satellite office for about seven weeks -- something like that. I went once a week and they gave me daily workouts to do at home. Those helped a lot.

I finally got back to school. The injury happened less than a week before school started. Orientation was the following Monday -- I didn't go to orientation. The first day of school was it Tuesday, the Tuesday after that, and I couldn't go to that. But I either went that day or Wednesday to find out where my classes were, to go to the office and tell them -- make sure they knew what happened. I was on crutches at that time, I was tired just walking to the offices and I ended up finally going back to school later that week, on like a Thursday or a Friday, I was in a wheelchair and I got a lot of school work and a lot of stuff I was falling behind on, but I took a few days off and got my school work done and I finally got caught up much later into the year. I missed most of football just trying to get caught back up and finally by about the sixth or seventh week in the season I got caught up and I started going to practices again. I was still working with -- I was just now finishing up with the physical therapy at the satellite office, and I was at football practice, I was moving around. I was actually running a little bit. By this time I was able to run a mile and I was starting to get faster and I was throwing and catching the football. And after that, I started going to Amy Bernard and doing a little training there, just mostly continuing what I left off with at my old physical therapy. Then I started, after that, about four weeks later I started wrestling and I had a little trouble at first, I was trying to wrestle but I did all the conditioning, all the lifting, whatever, and I ended up finding out I wasn't going to be able to wrestle, not because the doctor told me I couldn't but just because of the pain. It was too much. But I still did all the conditioning, I went through the whole season lifting with them, and running, and doing all the workouts they did, but I just couldn't live wrestle.  The conditioning helped me a lot for baseball once I got started with that. Because once I finished the wrestling season, I went to Amy Bernard almost every single day after school and so she took me through healing my leg and just -- we started from the bottom and just worked up and I worked on strengthening my thigh, and my knee and everything that would help me. And we finally started baseball conditioning and I want to say like in January or February, and I was doing running, I was lifting, I had a hard time squatting, but nothing that was too bad. I could still lift weights -- upper body -- and I could still run with them. The hardest thing was trying to keep an even pace while I was running because I was limping a little bit but eventually it worked out well and after the conditioning and tryouts I made the team -- I made the freshman team. And I ended up, I still went to Amy every day after school that I could. Once baseball season started I couldn't go to her very much. It wasn't until after the season was over that I continued with her and she helped me out then, but I started about half the games in the season. I played outfield. I was running fine, I was running the bases well, I was pinch running when I could. I never really had any problems with it. The only problems I might've had was stretching out and that was just because the muscles were tight. But other than that I started a lot of games and played a lot during the season. I played every single game and not everybody got to do that, so that was very good.

Now that I've started football again, I'm really grateful I had Dr. Herbenick, a great surgeon and he didn't put me in a cast, so I could walk around and run around much quicker than I would've if I was in a cast. And I wasn't in the hospital long so that helped me get moving quicker and the nurses were all nice and they got me on crutches and a told me to do everything I could home .

I'm very grateful I had Dr. Herbenick at Miami Valley because they advised me not to go to Children's, because it was such a traumatizing injury and they said Herbenick would take good care of me.

I was very thankful Amy called and got me to Miami Valley and the trauma center and got me to Herbenick because he did very well with my surgery and handling me after the surgery and I was very thankful he didn't put me in a cast, because he kept me moving and it helped me get back into sports quicker I think because it wasn't keeping my leg immobile, and the nurses were all very nice in getting me treated and taken care of and they helped me with knowing what to do when I'm at home and how to handle it on my own with crutches and everything. Then having the satellite office instead of having to go to Miami Valley because that would've been a long drive on the road and so they helped me out very well there. Once I got back to school I had the trainers who also worked at Miami Valley and they helped me out just as much as the rehab office did. They helped me out throughout the year and actually are still helping me just to keep going with football and all my sports. And so, I'm very thankful that I had the care that I did.

Yes, I was a triathlete. After football I went to, I got injured in football, and I went to the practices. And then, I went to all the games I never missed one game. I went to every single game. I was there -- it was a. . .

No, I was not wrapped up. The scars weren't too bad, they were tiny scars. I had stitches, but only down here. I only had staples, well I had staples right by my knee and on my hip, but there were pads over it at first, but they took them out, they took the staples out within a couple weeks. So I didn't have to worry about it too much. Also the games started a week after so I had the pads at first, when I was in a wheelchair.

He told me a little bit, I don't remember much. I feel like he told me a lot before the surgery, but I don't remember very much of it. He told me that he was going to put a rod in my leg and there's going to be after the surgery he told me again there's a rod in my leg and there were screws in my knee and in my hip and that they inserted it at the hip and I still have the scars from the staples. The staples were a little surprising but nothing I couldn't handle. I was fine.

And I'm also on student council. I am the only freshman to be asked back to student council. They run it for a semester and then you have to be interviewed and fill out an application to be in there for a semester and I did that my eighth grade year for first semester freshman year and then I applied to be back second semester normally it's just the two seniors and a couple sophomores, but I got it as a freshman and apparently I was the only one to do that so    And I plan on running for an office next year for my sophomore year... a student council officer. A lot of the upperclassman know me.

Yes I am training for football. We started conditioning and lifting on Monday. I've been very sore. But it was doable.
But the coaches are helping me out and they know what I've been through and they ask me if it's bothering my leg and I just tell them "no, I'm fine". We've had three practices so far and I've been able to do everything.

Amy Wheeler has been there and she, I talked to her after practice -- she was there Monday and Tuesday and I talked to her about how things were going, what I can do to keep my leg strong. And she gave me stuff to do it home still for over the summer.

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