Doctors can make mistakes, and even if they don't make a mistake, something can STILL go wrong. My cousin operated on a patient's trachea due to severe ulceration. He removed all the lacerated parts, stitched it back up, did a pressure test and everything was ok. Six months later the guy's family brings him to ER in bad shape (unconscious). They open him up, and he has a fungal infection all over the inside of his body. Apparently one of the stitches opened up or came loose, and the patient had seepage into his abdominal cavity. Anyways the guy dies a day later and my cousin still blames himself to this day. Just to put into perspective, to all the people saying 3 doctors said there's nothing wrong on the MRI: if there was nothing wrong, why are we having this discussion today? Tracy wants to get microfracture surgery JUST FOR FUN? Some of you guys are despicable.
This statement is missing some facts.... There's a reason you have PT's and MD's and every Rehab is not the same.. The deal is some people require longer rehab than others and just playing on a knee will not always make it stronger... The knee is one of the trickiest part of the body. Most people think you can just go out and do leg presses, leg curls and other exercises and the knee will automatically strengthen up... in order to really strength the knee you have to do a lot of exercises with bands and balancing equipment.. It's very critical to strength those smaller muscles first. And I said before.... This entire episode with T-Mac is everyones fault.
No, Tracy doesnt want to have the surgery for fun. However, Im sure he realizes that he cant play with any sort of pain or discomfort at all, therefore he has to resort to something that will eliminate all of it...so that he can resume playing. Tracy isnt the first player to have some missing cartilage...lots of players are playing at this moment that just play through the pain. TMac is obviously not one of those players. Fact of the matter is that MRIs are showing no change at all in the knee. Fact of the matter is that its only 0.5 cm of cartilage missing on a portion of the knee that doesnt bear any weight. Thats not something that should completely disable a player like it has with TMac. These guys are supposed to be beasts...there are players playing with much more damage in their knee than TMac. So yes, TMac's knee isnt perfect...doctors have agreed that he needs to get his knee stronger to make up for his current condition. Doctors also agree that he does not need surgery. However, in TMac's little head, he'd rather play with zero pain...than to play with some pain...therefore the surgery is going to happen. It took a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th opinion.
First off, I'm a 3rd med student. And before you go off saying you don't know anything being a med student, I've seen all kinds of things over these three years, and before this I volunteered in an ER since HS so I've seen stuff. 1. No medical test, sign, x-ray, or lab result is 100% right or correct all the time. Most tests can find a pathology, disease, etc. 90-95% of the time. A few are even less accurate such as 50-75% depending on what your looking at (ie, having snot that is green/yellow has a 25-50% chance you have a bacterial infection). Doesn't mean you should never trust these tests or doctors. Just means that one test can miss thing things, even the most sensitive (medical term meaning best at finding pathology/disease/bad stuff). 2. Even with testing and surgeries and such, different people rehab or return to baseline at different rates. This makes complete common sense, but many people think a. they will break the mold and rehab quicker than needed or b. feel somewhat better and stop rehabbing too soon. It is extremely difficult to know exactly when someone will be back to baseline, and you often trust the patient to be careful.
Well i think the doctor's mistake was believing tmac's knee was further along strength-wise, so when they say further strengthen the knee by playing, i think they meant like the finishing touches, not doing rehab mostly by playing. so why/how would the doctor think tmac's knee was strong enough when it wasnt?? Well, even tmac himself and his own trainer, who's been with him for years, said tmac was back strength-wise when he took his 10 days off. Then he regressed back to a weak knee, or so he says. So it's possible the same thing happened early in the season when the doc cleared him to play, so the doc technically was right in making his decision.
That's the thing. All of those were just rumors. Tracy nor the Rockets were NOT pointing blame to him. Why would he feel the need to clear his name based on rumors and inuendos?
The only thing Dr. Clanton is guilty for is thinking that TMac would have a recovery time that is on par with 95% of the population. So yes, Dr. Clanton's credibility in assessing TMac's strength/fragility should be questioned from here on out.
The Dr. had no idea that T-Wuss was going to loaf rehab time off by sitting on his couch all summer eating chips and drinking beer. T-Loaf admitted that he had not taken rehab seriously enough and basically was trying to "catch-up" at the expense of the rest of the team when the season started. All this crap about blaming the Dr. is mumbo jumbo. When T-Wee showed up for media day, he was whining about his shoulder also. The guy is full of crap and the team was trying its best to avoid ending his career by not doing the micro but T-Wuss couldn't take the pain. So please, the fact he didn't tell the team but instead fatmouth Steven A. on the day of the trade deadline shows that this was one big circus ride-courtesy of T-Wack and right now the Dr. is just falling on the sword.
i agree..total PR move by the rockets..but why are they trying to repair his iamge to the fans of Houston....we don't want him back....i think its pointless unless they want him to play here next season... oh well....I think its pretty pathetic for them to think how stupid fans are and believe that the Doctor made him play....
Remember this doctor is afterall, a doctor, not just the rockets' team doctor. He more than likely has his own practice and other clients, athletes and non-athletes. Tracy and the team may know what is a rumor and what isn't, but the doc's possible clients won't unless he clears it up publicly.
I'm with you. Most fans on this tread probably wouldn't think he is telling the truth unless they were actually in the operating room themselves. To me action speak loader than words. Last year his leg was hurt! During the playoffs he practically had to will hisself through the whole series. I think after the season, the Rockets and T-Mac took the path of resistance, rather than Microfracture. It did not pay off. I think he will be back and I think most fans will be right back on his bandwagon.
You are reaching here. There has been nothing written about any clients asking this from the doctor so your reasoning is based on just pure speculation but let me try to explain (based on my own logic) why that does not hold water. Yes he is a doctor and he has a reputation to uphold. It does not make sense to admit anything to the public (especially if you are admitting a mistake) if the public is not scrutnizing him. He was NOT under any pressure to admit anything to us. If his concerns are with his future and current clients, all he has to do is admit it them. If I was a patient of this doctor, why would he become a better doctor by admitting it publicly as oppose to privately? I will all of a sudden agree to be attended by him due to this? Myself, no way.
