USA TODAY International Edition
Bruschi ‘ 100% positive’ he’s healthy enough
left the father of three sons barely able to walk.
Despite recovering quickly, Bruschi emphatically said in September that a comeback would have to wait until 2006. But last week he announced he had medical clearance to play and
stressed his decision
to return was neither
rash nor life- threatening.
“ Unanimously, every doctor and physician that’s seen me has given me clearance,” Bruschi said.
“ This isn’t something you just go for. I mean, come on, I lost my sight.
. . . Itwas a traumatic experience. It’s been a long road back. I’m not going to jump into something without being absolutely 100% positive, and I am.”
Larry B. Goldstein, director of the Duke Stroke Center and a spokesman for the American Stroke Association, says eight months is not an unusually short recovery period for a stroke survivor.
“ The most rapid recovery period is over the 0 rst few weeks, and it continues rapidly for two to three months,” Goldstein says.
He adds: “ Most stroke victims who survive recover, and they recover to varying degrees. . . . It really depends on how bad theywere to begin with.”
Goldstein says getting immediate treatment, preferably within three hours of the stroke, “ can signi 0 cantly reduce the chance of being disabled.
. . . We say time lost is brain lost.”
Bruschi was at home when his stroke hit, and his wife, Heidi, whose father is a physician’s assistant, quickly called 911.
“ I’m not shocked that he’s back,” says fellow Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, who fractured his hip in 2003 but makes no comparisons to his season- long recovery and what Bruschi has faced. “ What I’ve seen him do, no, I’m not shocked.”
Like everyone in the Patriots’ locker room, Colvin addresses Bruschi’s return as inevitable, even though Bruschi has yet to be activated for Sunday’s game. Colvin says there was no great attention paid to No. 54 at Monday’s practice, when Bruschi had his 0 rst contact session since the Pro Bowl.
“ ‘ Hey Tedy, how you doing? Good to see you.’ That was about it,” Colvin says. “ Business as usual.”
“ I hope he comes out there and rocks it. He can add 54, the things that he knows, the way he plays the game, the way he has played the game. I hope he can bring that back to us.” Comebacks not too successful
Two high- pro 0 le examples of professional athletes attempting comebacks after strokes in the last quartercentury don’t offer an encouraging prognosis for Bruschi.
In 1980, Houston Astros pitcher J. R. Richard was accused of being lazy when he complained of arm pain and tests detected no problem. Then Richard’s stroke hit, just weeks after the right-hander started the All- Star Game.
Richard w as 3 0, had b een a 2 0gamewinner in 1976 and had recorded 300- strikeout seasons in 1978 and ’ 79. A minor league comeback bid failed in 1983, and he was homeless in the ’ 90s when a Houston Post reporter found him living under a bridge and told his story. Friends helped Richard get his life back together.
In hockey, Brian Mullen had a mild stroke at 31 in 1993 and tried a comeback with the New York Islanders in 1994 after surgery to correct a heart problem that caused the stroke. He was progressing but suffered a seizure at practice. Despite getting medical clearance to resume play, no team was willing to take a chance.
Lastweek, in an interviewwith Boston Globe
reporter Ron Borges, Mullen said: “ Some of the top doctors in the world told me I was 0 ne. There would be no problem going back to play.”
He added: “ In hindsight I wish I’d pushed a little harder to play again, but I didn’t. I knew in my heart I could make it back, but I didn’t get a second chance. . . . I wish I’d proven I could have done it.”
Mullen told the Globe he has had two additional seizures, which he attributed to changes in his medication, but no subsequent strokes.
There is one pro athlete who suffered a stroke and then had the best year of his career in a sport that sometimes involves taking hits from a 250pound calf.
In April 2003, Stran Smith suffered a stroke that, like Bruschi’s was attributed to a blood clot passing through a hole in his heart. Last year Smith was the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s world runner- up in tiedown roping, where he jumps off a horse that’s running at 20 mph and ties up and brings down a calf.
Talking from his 40- acre ranch in Childress, Texas, in the northern part of the state, Smith says doctors initially “ told me I needed to 0 nd another occupation.”
But Smith and his wife, Jennifer, kept consulting with doctors and decided the best course of action was surgery to have a plug- like device placed in the hole in his heart. Bruschi has con0 rmed having similar surgery in March.
Smith, who was left unable to utter a sound by the stroke but now speaks rapid- 0 re, offerswhat he calls a “ Cowboy Logic” explanation of the surgery:
“ It’s like putting a patch on a tire. They put a patch on the device, and they put another patch on top of that. Now it’s three- ply instead of one- ply.
. . . You’re not going to have a blood clot pass through that hole in your heart and go to your brain ever again. Once that seals and it’s together, there’s no chance you’re going to knock it loose.”
As for Bruschi, Smith says, “ I really believe he’s in a lot better shape now than he’s ever been in his life. I think people who are calling him sel 0 sh need to go get educated about it before they start pointing 0 ngers.”
Smith hasn’t spoken with Bruschi but says his advice is, “ Go all out, get that 0 rst hit out of the way and go on. Let everybody know it, that ‘ I’m here. I’m back.’ ” Pats’ defense needs a spark
Bruschi has been working out with the Patriots and attending team meetings since training camp. He concedes that resuming full contact Monday “felt like the 0 rst day of training camp,” but he adds, “ I believe my body is physically ready” to return to a 3- 3 team that clearly needs him.
New England’s defense has yielded 97 points in its last three games. During last season’s 6-0 start, the Patriots gave up 90 points. The defense also is in a last- place tie with winless Houstonf or fewest forced turnovers ( three).
New England has until 4 p. m. Saturday to activate Bruschi for Sunday’s prime- time ESPN game against 3- 4 rival Buffalo. Head coach Bill Belichick has been his typical non- committal self on Bruschi’s return, saying, “ We’ll take it day- to-day and see where it goes,” and “ I’m not going to do a minuteby- minute evaluation.”
But the usually terse Belichick made his admiration for Bruschi apparent last season after Bruschi recovered two fumbles in a 20- 3 playoff victory against Indianapolis.
“ He is the kind of guy you always want on the 0 eld because if something unexpected happens like that, he almost always does the right thing,” Belichick told reporters.
Buffalo head coach Mike Mularkey is preparing as if New England will have its defensive co-captain back in place.
“ He’s got grit. Given a chance to come back and play, I would have been very surprised if he would have turned that chance down,” Mularkey says.
“ That’s the kind of guy he is, the kind of player he is. He’s an emotional leader, and I know guys feed off that emotion. I can’t say enough about him.”