[Monkeydad]

Saw this on another site, posted by someone claiming to be a doctor:

Guys-
I'm board certified in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and also in Facial Plastic Surgery. I've seen dozens of these type of injuries over the years. First of all, we should be grateful he is alive and that apparently there are no neurologic problems (stroke, spinal cord injury). He faces potentially a very long road ahead. Bleeding indicates a break in the laryngeal or tracheal mucosa, and generally this is due to fracture of the cartilages. In young people, the cartilage isn't calcified and it gives quite alot. But it can break. Emergent surgery of this nature is usually due to one of two things- impending airway compromise (due to an expanding hematoma- collection of blood, collapse of airway, or even laryngeal nerve injury, or laryngeal-tracheal separation). In that case they will do a tracheostomy, probably with the patient 100% awake (these are not fun for the surgeon or the patient- I did three last month).

The other reason for surgery is to perform laryngofissure. The neck is opened up, and the broken laryngeal cartilage (if fractured) is repaired with sutures and titanium microplates. Rarely do you know the injury ahead of time, as these patients are in extremis, and a CT scan is risky (loosing an airway and trach'ing a patient in the CT scanner is extremely unpleasant).

Hard to say what happened based only upon the emergent nature of this injury and the report of coughing blood from ESPN.

I pray that he is safe, and has no defects. I believe in my professional opinion that he might not see the field for a very long time.

The best case scenario is that he coughed blood due to a tear, his cartilage flexed extensively but did not fracture, he developed a hematoma in his larynx, and "surgery" was direct laryngoscopy with intubation in the O.R. I've been down this pathway many times before too, and I hope that this is the case. IN that case, he'll be intubated and in an ICU for a few days. But his season may still be over. If it were my son, it would be over.

If he went to USC for emergent surgery, he's is very good hands- I know the surgeons there, they know their stuff. Elsewhere...not so much.