Tommy John Surgery Helps Players Overcome Arm Injuries

For some players, choosing to have Tommy John surgery is not an easy decision to make. It requires discussions among players and their parents and doctors. But for those who are serious about baseball, going ahead with the procedure tends to become in the best interest of the player.

BrowardHighSchoolBaseball.com spoke with three area players who have had the procedure performed. Before we get to their stories, here’s a little background on the surgery.

Formally known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, Tommy John surgery is a surgical procedure in which a ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body (often from the forearm, hamstring, knee or foot).

After the tendon from the forearm of the same or opposite elbow or below the knee is harvested, it is then woven in a figure-eight pattern through tunnels that have been drilled in the ulna and humerus bone that are part of the elbow joint.

The procedure is named after former major league pitcher Tommy John, whose surgery in 1974 was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe. John spent 18 months rehabilitating his arm, returned for the 1976 season and went on to pitch in the major leagues until 1989 when he was 46.

Notable pitchers who have had the surgery include A.J. Burnett, Chris Carpenter, Josh Johnson, Daisuke Matsuzaka, John Smoltz and Stephen Strasburg.

Nick Scahill, a senior pitcher at Coral Springs Charter, is among the players in Broward who have had the procedure performed. Scahill was playing in a summer league in Midland, Ohio, in June last year. Scahill said he recognized something was wrong with his arm around the fifth inning of the first game he started up there.

“My arm lagged a little more than usual,” he said. “It didn’t come through right, I felt a snap and heard a pop. I knew that it wasn’t something common. I pulled myself from the game.”

Scahill saw a doctor there who told him he’d have to miss six to eight weeks of playing time. He went home, and it was determined the surgery was the best choice to correct the problem. Scahill had his surgery done about a month later by Dr. Erol Yoldas at Broward General Medical Center and is nearing the end of his rehab period, which began right after surgery.

“[My arm is] finally getting to feeling about where it was before I got I hurt. It’s been a long, vigorous road back,” said Scahill, who estimated he is at about 90 percent right now. “The therapy has been great, and I’m looking to be at 100 percent in the next two weeks.”

Steve Rogers, who is directing the Panthers this fall while head coach Mike Higgins concentrates on running the football team, said the coaching staff is “just working on all his pitches and command of the strike zone, and keeping him on a pitch count of around 50 to 60 pitches.”

Rogers expects Scahill to be among the top pitchers in the state this spring as he helps guide the team in one of the most competitive districts in the county.

Monarch’s David Webb is another pitcher who has had Tommy John surgery. Webb, who also is a senior, had his surgery done in March 2010 by Dr. George Caldwell at Broward General Medical Center.

He attributes his arm problems to overuse the summer before, pitching two to three times a week for Pompano Post 142. Not feeling right during his sophomore season, Webb has his arm examined and an MRI showed a tear. He and his parents decided it would be best to get the surgery done as soon as possible so he wouldn’t worsen the injury.

“We thought it was a good idea to do it now rather than wait,” Webb said. “The whole decision was tough.”

But what might have been tougher was watching his team play the rest of the season without him.

“It was frustrating because I wanted to be out there so bad,” he said.

Two-hour therapy sessions three times a week caused him to missed most of his team’s games even as a spectator. Six months into his nearly year-long recovery period, he was pitching off a mound again.

“It was different,” he said. “Just throwing, trying to get back into the state of mind of pitching 100 percent halfway through.”

Webb returned to the Knights for his junior season and was a “huge part of our success last year, winning five games on the mound and really pitching a large chunk of our innings for the year,” Monarch coach Joe Franco said. “He threw strikes and got guys out.”

Franco said he expects Webb “to pitch a lot and be very successful his senior year for us. He has a great amount of potential being 6-foot-five, 190 pounds and wants the ball every time.”

Although the surgery is more prevalent among pitchers, position players may need the surgery as well. Such is the case for Bradley Garcia, a senior catcher/third baseman at Everglades.

Garcia started having pains in his elbow toward the end of his sophomore season, but he and his father, Edel Garcia, the Gators’ coach, thought it was nothing serious.

“He rested his arm for a couple of weeks, and the pain was gone,” Edel said. “He then joined the Florida Bombers showcase team in the summer of 2010. There was a heavy schedule of tournaments and his elbow started hurting again.”

Bradley said “one day I was warming up and felt a shock go down my arm.” Knowing something was wrong, he and his father went to see Dr. Keith Hechtman at the University of Miami’s Doctor’s Hospital, and an MRI showed he had a partial tear in his ulnar ligament.

“We wanted to avoid surgery and tried therapy first. The therapy did not work,” Edel Garcia said. “Then the doctor wanted to try an experimental procedure that entails taking blood, cultivating it to just leave the healing components of the blood and then injecting the elbow area to see if that would help the ligament heal on its own.”

When that didn’t seem to be the answer, the family weighed its options and finally decided on the surgery, which Bradley had performed in December 2010. It was a sacrifice. It meant he would miss his junior year but ensured he would be back to play his senior season.

“As his dad, I was highly concerned about doing the surgery as it is not a simple one,” Edel said. “I also wanted to make sure my son was serious about wanting to continue to play ball before committing to such an invasive surgery. After understanding the high success rate the surgery has, the commitment from my son he would work hard to recover and seeing no other solution that would allow him to keep playing ball, we decided to proceed.”

Bradley said the therapy period was “hard and painful. It was a difficult time. It kind of affected my whole life.”

Bradley persevered and is preparing for his senior season thanks to therapy that didn’t kill him but only made him stronger.

“He always had a strong arm, but today it is much stronger,” Edel said. “Hard to say if it is due to having had Tommy John surgery or as a result of the therapy to strengthen his arm.”

Coming back in better shape than before is common after the surgery and is one of the reasons the players we spoke with said to have the surgery done.

“If there’s a chance that it’s going to happen again, and you want to pursue a baseball career, if you really want to play, it’s a long road, but you come back stronger,” Scahill said. “I would say do it if you need it, but not go out of your way to do.”

Webb said the key to success after the surgery is proper rehabilitation.

“Therapy is absolutely the most important part,” he said. “If you slack off in therapy, it shows. Stick with therapy.”

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