Jon Bills Update

Submitted by Raback Omaba on

My sources have told me that the surgery to repair Jon Bills' vertebrae went well and the prognosis for a full recovery remain high. He is able to move his feet and hands, which is absolutely huge for in an injury of that nature.

He's still not out of the woods yet, but things are trending positively and will hopefully remain that way.

Of all the bad luck we've had the past 2 years, this recovery might signify that our luck is finally turning and good things are happening. I'd take his full recovery over a Rose Bowl victory any day.

Go Blue

MGoShoe

June 7th, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^

...if accurate.  I'm sure Jon faces some pretty intense rehab and it's great to know he's got the UMHS for that and Barwis and company for the post-rehab.

Co-signed on what is the most important thing on this very interesting day.

Lordfoul

June 7th, 2010 at 10:35 PM ^

This makes up for ending last night on a down note.  Here's to as full a recovery as possible. 

 

If I was a bachelor I would be an MGoBlog addict.  With the wife and kid gone right now, I can't get enough of the intelligent conversation.  Need sleep though.

zerocool

June 7th, 2010 at 10:36 PM ^

Best wishes to Jon.  I hope that the images and triumphs of Brock Mealer will help keep his spirits high during this trying ordeal.  I wish him a speedy recovery!

Kilgore Trout

June 7th, 2010 at 11:44 PM ^

Not to minimize by any means, but as a person who works extensively in spine surgery, breaking a vertebre is not nearly the horribleness it sounds like.  As long as there's no spinal cord / nerve root damage, he should be fine.  Decompress the fracture, throw in a cage, a few screws and some rods, and you're good to go.  You're not likely or advised to play a full contact sport like FBS football afterwards of course.  Literally thousands of people a day have their spines surgically stabilized.  The spine guys at UM are incredible, he's in good hands.  

teldar

June 8th, 2010 at 6:51 AM ^

There's a huge difference between a fractured vertebra and a spinal cord lesion. You can absolutely destroy a vertebra without impacting the spinal cord significantly. It just needs to be cleaned, cemented, and instrumented  so there is no future damage to the cord.

Now, if he had a piece of vertebra which was sticking into the cord, this is another matter. 

Of if he had central cord syndrome, could have been a bad sign (not necessarily as CCS can resolve by itself. It's just bruising of the cord and loss of upper function while retaining lower function) but fortunately, a broken vertebra is not necessarily something that is life altering.