Tale of Two Athletes:  Dave Wyman and Scott Cauchois

(This is another touchy-feely article on microfracture, from the Steadman--Hawkins Spring-Summer 2000 newsletter.)

Some athletes have seen their best days. Others are experiencing their best days. And when competing at the highest levels, the potential for injury has always been — and always will be — there. 

Former pro linebacker Dave Wyman suffered a knee-ripping, blind-side cut while an All-American playing with John Elway at Stanford University. It was severe, leading Stanford doctors to wonder if he would ever walk, let alone play, again. Thanks to Dr. Richard Steadman and his team at Steadman-Hawkins, Wyman went on to star with the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, playing once again with his old pal and teammate John Elway. But there were nine knee surgeries along the way.

Scott Cauchois, who went to the University of California, Berkeley on a soccer scholarship, joined an indoor soccer league after graduation and tore his ACL on artificial turf, suffering not only signifi-cant cartilage damage but injury to his femur as well. Prognosis: Future sports participation doubtful. He, too, headed for Dr. Steadman. Though it would be a stretch to consider soccer and football the same fields of endeavor, the common denominator in this case was a new surgery called microfracture. Pioneered by Dr. Steadman in the mid-Eighties, microfracture involves the use of an arthroscopic shaver to remove cartilage remnants and surgical awls to make perforations through the subchondral bone plate, thus allowing access to stem cells and promoting important healing factors.  Without this revolutionary surgery, it’s likely that Wyman and Cauchois would be facing total knee replacement at some point, sooner rather than later, during their lives.

Dave Wyman, 35 years old and retired from the pro gridiron for five years, is now a financial consultant with Merrill-Lynch in Scottsdale, Ariz. The day he dislo-cated his knee on the field at Stanford ("It was a day I’ll never forget—I still have nightmares about it"), doctors at first could not find a pulse in his lower leg. A half-hour later, a pulse was finally discovered—but, says Wyman, "For a while, there was that lingering doubt whether I’d ever walk again." The knee was repaired by Stanford doctors, but while he was recuperating, a friend paid him a visit "Ken Margerum, who was then playing for the Chicago Bears, came to see me. He had been to Dr. Steadman for knee surgery and, always a free spirit, he came in jogging and starting doing laps around my wheel-chair. He convinced me to call on Dr. Steadman, who was then in Tahoe. Because Ken was a mentor to me, that’s all it took. I went to see Dr. Steadman in 1985 and he, John Atkins and Topper Hagerman got me back in shape. I missed the next year, but came back my senior year to be named All-Pac and All-American."

Wyman has since had nine knee surgeries—two on his left knee, six on his right—all but one by Dr. Steadman. But what really turned his life around was microfracture, which Dr. Steadman performed on him in 1989, his second year in the pro leagues. "I was feeling a lot of pain in my left knee, and it would give out without warning. Since microfracture, I’ve never had any problems with my knee."

Wyman, in fact, now jogs on his treadmill an hour a day, plays basketball, goes hiking, mountain biking, and plays a pretty aggres-sive game of squash. All without pain.

"I’ve gained so much confidence," Wyman says today, "And that’s because of Dr. Steadman. He’s one of those special people you meet in life that you just know and trust. He’s absolutely the best at what he’s doing. And the same goes for John and Topper and the entire Steadman-Hawkins staff. They’re really on the cutting edge."

Scott Cauchois was not an All-American, and he never played with the pros. Nonetheless, this former Berkeley soccer player suffered a devastating injury when his knee gave way during an indoor-league match in 1992, resulting in a torn ACL, extensive cartilage damage and an injured femur. He had heard good things about the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic, so it was off to Vail—where, in 1992, he underwent an ACL reconstruction, then microfracture surgery to repair his cartilage.

"I feel great today," says the 33-year old human-resources soft-ware sales manager from San Francisco. "It was pretty much a miracle. I’m still not 100 percent—maybe 95 percent. But the staff at the SteadmanHawkins Sports Medicine Foundation still continue to survey and follow my progress, and that’s been a real confidence-booster for me. I’m very impressed by the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic. You take a top doctor like Dr. Steadman, coordinate what he does with the Steadman-Hawkins rehab group, and you end up with pretty much a state-of-the-art prescription for healthy knees."

Scott’s rehab was intensive: non-weight-bearing for two months, then sessions on a continuous-passive-motion machine for eight hours a day for two months (since he worked during the day, the sessions had to be performed at night), then light bike and flexibility exercises. But, Scott admits, it was worth it. Especially since he had set aside his soccer shoes to sign up for the Race Across California Enviro.

If he thought rehab had been arduous, it was nothing compared to the Enviro, a four-day stage race between Lake Tahoe and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Over the next four days, he and three teammates would log 37 miles of wilderness running, 83.5 miles on mountain bikes, 165 miles on road bikes, and 25 miles of river kayaking. Grueling, yes. But after winning the four-man event with a time of 35 hours, 56 minutes and 20 seconds, Scott’s only reaction was "It was fun—and a great way to see California."

Had he not had the good fortune to meet Dr. Steadman, and reap the benefits of microfracture, he may well have been sitting in front of the TV watching indoor soccer.

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