December 28, 2008

Barbosa's Injury Serious After All

Hello everyone. We hope you all had a good Christmas. We certainly did, and we expect good things from the new year too.

Unfortunately, things aren't going so well in the gymnastics world. Nearly all the stories we've come across over the last few days are about strife, injuries and other reasons for concern. We'll share them with you, but don't expect them to cheer you up. It's not that time of year. Or is it?

Anyhow. On to our first story of the day, which concerns none other than Triple Full regular Jade Barbosa.

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(photo: Reuters)

A while ago we reported that Jade was doing well. The Brazilian superstar was said to be recovering well from her hand injury, and quoted as saying she hoped to resume serious training soon.

Turns out that that diagnosis was a bit premature.

According to her official site, Jade was recently submitted to a new examination of her right hand, and the results were not favourable. According to the doctor treating Barbosa, Ricardo Laranjeira, the gymnast's injury has improved from a clinical point of view, but is in a critical state from a radiological point of view. Apparently the necrosis in the capitate bone, a small bone in the middle of the hand, has not recently bothered Jade, who has been given the green light to resume training. However, Dr. Laranjeira confirmed that the pain may return any minute.

"At the moment she has little pain and is free to resume physical activity," Laranjeira said in an interview with Régis Rösing of TV Globo, summarized by Globoesporte. "But the injury may get painful again. We can't say for sure when the injury will be healed; it's possible that it will never heal. We'll see how it goes, but it could be an irreversible injury."

Laranjeira went on to say that he couldn't give a prognosis in terms of performance. "What may or may not keep her from competing is pain."

He also said, "It's a degenerative injury which causes pain. Therefore, it is being reevaluated. I examined her 2 months ago and 15 days ago. Furthermore, we will seek a second opinion from a foreign colleague so as to establish a more definitive path of Jade."

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Jade's hands (photo: Reuters)

Given the gravity of the injury, the case will be reviewed by a medical team from the United States and studied at medical conferences and clinics. Jade will probably have to leave the country to continue her treatment.

8 comments:

  1. I wanted to get that story out before you guys. I only posted it a little more than 10 hours before you. Anyways, O Globo did a story on it and that's what I used.

    The clinical vs. radiological thing means that although her fracture has healed, she will still experience pain if she continues to train. You should look at my post about it. It goes even more in depth.

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  2. Thanks, Cidlover, but perhaps you should check your sources a bit more carefully. As far as we know, Jade never had a fracture in her hand. She suffers from necrosis, which has caused one of her bones to erode and is much worse than a fracture. Fractures may (and generally do) heal; necrosis is irreversible.

    Anyhow, we had a look at the Globoesporte article and have edited our post, adding all the Laranjeira quotes.

    As for outscooping us, have at it! We've given up on trying to be the first to report everything. We were involved in a race of sorts with The C Score, and it nearly cost one of us her job. If her most recent post is anything to go by, The C Score didn't like the race much either. If you want to have a shot at it, be our guest, but you'll probably find life is more enjoyable if you don't. We certainly have. We'll be taking it a bit easier from now on. :)

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  3. Oops. I for some reason assumed that an injury to her capitate bone caused her necrosis. Anyways I feel that if I try to outscoop you girls on every newsbreak, I would be bound to fail since you have much more translating power than I. The C-score is also gonna be closed for a while, so you have a lot less competition.

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  5. Osteonecrosis is often caused by injury, but not always. Judging from earlier statements by Laranjeira, Jade's osteonecrosis was caused by repeated stress rather than a fracture. If she had had a fracture, she probably would have received treatment much sooner, or been spared her all-out Olympic training.

    As to the outscooping, as we were saying, you're very welcome to give it a try. We don't mind a bit of rivalry; it's motivating. Just be aware that it's an extremely obsessive and addictive business and you may end up spending all your time in front of a computer. We did that while The C Score was still active, and it was tough. We're glad we can take it a bit easier now, although we miss the rivalry on a certain level.

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  6. I'm spending a lot of time writing these posts already. I don't even know how many people are reading them.

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  7. The life of a blogger. This is why I drive up commenting at TF. So they don't get frustrated. Forums give more interaction.

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  8. TCO, for the last time: we don't want anyone to drive up commenting. We don't want any kind of inappropriate comments or trolling. We don't. This is my last warning to you. One more inappropriate comment and I WILL ban you.

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