Did a misunderstanding cost Boyle?

After being cleared, the Lightning defenseman reinjures his wrist. He might have returned too early.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
Published November 18, 2007

In the end, the story of the wrist tendon injury that has sidelined Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle might be one of semantics.

Boyle's agent, George Bazos, said his client wants to know why he was told there was no chance the injury could worsen by playing five weeks after surgery but then needed a second procedure after part of the repair ruptured.

Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said he does not believe Tampa orthopedist Richard Gray, who did the original surgery, made such a guarantee: "What Dr. Gray recalls telling Danny is in his experience he never had one of those types of injuries at that stage of its progression that didn't heal properly."

But Bazos insisted: "It is my understanding Dan was clearly told there was no further risk of injury. Dan wanted to play. He said he could deal with the pain if there was no risk. Obviously, there was a risk."

The bottom line is Boyle, 31, one of the league's top puck-moving blue-liners, is out indefinitely. And what began as one of the strangest episodes in team history has become a quest, on both sides, to make peace with the circumstances.

"This is no indictment of Tampa," Bazos said. "There was no malicious intent. But it could have been handled differently."

"I understand the frustration on Danny's part," Feaster said. "We're frustrated, too. But there's a difference between frustration andlooking to ascribe blame. The hockey club is not looking to ascribe blame. We got it fixed, we hope, and now it's about getting Danny back playing."

Boyle was hurt when a skate fell off a hook atop his St. Pete Times Forum locker and sliced three tendons in his left wrist.

He missed the season's first nine games after surgery and then played four. After he complained of pain and weakness, an MRI exam revealed two tendons had ruptured.

A second surgery by Thomas Graham, chief of the Curtis National Hand Center at Baltimore's Union Memorial Hospital, used a tendon from Boyle's left index finger to replace the ruptured tendons that were not repaired.

Richard Gilbert, a clinical instructor of orthopedics at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center, said the procedure is well-established.

"If it is ruptured once and the integrity of the tendon doesn't look good, this is a pretty successful operation," he said.

The larger question was, did Boyle return too soon after the first surgery? The team's original timetable was four to six weeks. Boyle, cleared by team medical director Ira Guttentag, played his first game after five weeks and one day.

Boyle declined several interview requests.

Speaking generally, Gilbert said he recommends patients who have similar surgeries avoid full contact for about eight weeks. So does Dawn LaPorte, an orthopedic hand surgeon at Johns Hopkins.

"The tendon is usually not normally healed at that point," she said of five weeks. "Anyone back into full contact at five weeks would certainly have a moderate chance of rupture, even with the best surgery."

The Lightning declined to make Gray, Guttentag's associate, available for comment. But Graham, recommended for Boyle's second surgery by the Players Association, said, "Professional athletes have such a myriad of resources, they typically are on an accelerated timetable for a return to play. The injury he sustained was probably in the four- to seven-week range.

"The other thing is hockey is a gloved sport, so protective splints and taping can add protection and accelerate the timetable further."

Ultimately, though, Graham said, each case is different: "That's why you set individual milestones and progress from there."

"It's just unfortunate we didn't get the result we hoped for," Feaster said. "While we're saying that and Danny is saying that, so too is Dr. Gray. None of us wanted this to happen."

Damian Cristodero can be reached at cristodero@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 17, 2007, 22:55:46]