Those Booth Horses Again -

[wsanto]

(04-11-2014 05:39 PM)JMadonna Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 12:47 PM)L Verge Wrote:  When does it count that numerous doctors have said that the broken bone was not a weight-bearing one so that getting into the saddle - despite an obstreperous horse - was possible?

Probably, when there is an actual documented case rather than assuming theoretical possibilities.

There are many documented cases in sports. Most recently a Boston Bruin played multiple shifts of a hockey game after suffering a broken fibula while blocking a shot. He certainly put more stress on his fibula skating at an NHL level of power and speed than someone mounting a skittish horse.

Below is another documented case. This is Slate.com article (couldn't copy and paste the link) about an olympic sprinter who broke his fibula during a sprint and continued the race in good time---

Aug. 9 2012 7:45

American Sprinter Manteo Mitchell Broke His Leg and Kept on Running. How Is That Possible?

By Krystal Bonner


Manteo Mitchell of the United States runs his leg of the 4-by-400-meter relay.

"I heard it and I felt it," American sprinter Manteo Mitchell told the Associated Press after breaking his leg on Thursday. Mitchell, who was halfway through his segment of the men’s 4-by-400 relay when he felt something snap, did what he said “almost any person would've done in that situation”—he finished the remaining 200 meters. His endurance wasn’t for naught: After Mitchell limped off, his three teammates completed the relay and qualified for the 4-by-400 final. After the race, doctors diagnosed Mitchell with a complete break of the left fibula and said the bone would heal in four to six weeks. How difficult is it to run 200 meters on a broken fibula?

Very difficult, but not impossible. The fibula is the smaller of the two bones that make up the lower leg, the other being the tibia. Unlike the tibia, the fibula is non-weight-bearing. As such, it is possible to run on a broken fibula. The pain, though, would be intense and would likely debilitate many athletes. The fact that Mitchell made it around the track in just more than 46 seconds—a time that placed him in a tie for fifth out of eight runners—is extremely impressive.

Yet Mitchell isn’t the first runner to finish a race with a broken fibula. In 2009, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that high schooler Matt Schwingshakl completed the final 80 meters of a 400-meter race on a broken fibula. "I tried to maintain form, that's what I concentrated on," Schwingshakl said. "I ignored the pain." And a 1998 Daily Telegraph story noted that an English amateur runner named Joanna McAdam completed a 10K on two broken fibulas. “I don't think I'll be doing that distance again,” McAdam said.


Krystal Bonner is a Slate intern.