Inova Loudoun Hospital Turns 100!

Back in the Game
Two Athletes Overcome Injuries to Return to Peak Performance


David Johnson, MD works with Connor Jessop, while Tim Johnson, MD, performs an examination on Ryan Burns. Following football injuries, both high schoolers opted for surgery with the expert physicians at Inova Loudoun Hospital. They are both grateful they did. Both had stellar fall seasons and are planning to play college football when they graduate.

Stone Bridge High School’s junior pro-style quarterback Ryan Burns, of Ashburn, was running down the sidelines late in the fourth quarter when his football season dramatically changed. “As I was going out of bounds, a guy pushed me,” says Burns, referring to the illegal hit in the third game of his sophomore year. “I went air-bound and felt a pop.” After coming out of the game, Burns tried to take off his shoulder pads. “When I tried to take my pads off, my whole arm came out of the socket with my pads,” he says.

Don’t Overdo It

Overtraining is common in today’s competitive sports world. There are plenty of ways to monitor yourself or your child to prevent overuse injuries.
“Kids shouldn’t be playing with pain,” says Tim Johnson, MD. “If an athlete is complaining of pain, you have to respect that. As a responsible parent, you don’t have to rush out to the doctor, but you need to monitor it.” For example, if a pitcher is complaining of elbow pain, start counting his pitches. Ask yourself if he is playing for more than one team or playing multiple games in one day. “It may seem like common sense,” Dr. Johnson says, “But common sense isn’t that common and there’s a lot of pressure for young athletes to perform.”
Here are some additional tips:

Sports have off-seasons for a reason. It’s important to take a break from repetitive activity.
Don’t play your sport more than nine months a year, recommends Dr. Johnson.
During the off-season, find another athletic activity that doesn’t use the same muscle group.
If you do sport-specific training in the off-season, make sure you’re only training, not competing.
Increase training gradually. Typically that means not more than a 10 percent increase in weight, mileage or pace in a week.

Find more sport-specific information here.

Luckily, the team physician, Tim Johnson, MD, of the National Sports Medicine Institute, affiliated with Inova Loudoun Hospital, was there watching from the sidelines. “It happened right in front of me,” says Dr. Johnson, a specialist in sports medicine who also serves as one of the team orthopedic surgeons for the Baltimore Orioles. “Ryan did what most people do when they dislocate their shoulder: he started moving his arm up and down like a chicken wing trying to move it back into place.”

X-rays revealed a fractured and dislocated left shoulder.

Sideswiped

Like Burns, running close to the gridiron sidelines was a dangerous spot for Connor Jessop, a senior at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, which earned a Virginia AA Division 4 title in 2009 during his sophomore season. It was the first play during the second game of his junior year, when Jessop was hit on the sideline. “I landed funky on my elbow and my shoulder felt weird,” Jessop says. “At first, I just thought it was a stinger. I tried to move my shoulder around and I heard a snap.”

Jessop soon learned he had broken his collarbone, known in medical terms as a displaced clavicle fracture, in his right throwing shoulder.

After their diagnosis, both athletes were faced with a choice: delay surgery and try to continue playing — with uncertain consequences — or have surgery immediately. “I chose the smart option,” says Burns, about the season-ending injury.

That meant undergoing outpatient arthroscopic surgery at the Inova Surgery Center at Inova Loudoun Hospital, which is equipped with the latest technology, in September 2010. Dr. Johnson removed a fractured piece of Burns’ dislocated and fractured shoulder, inserted two screws and repaired soft tissues that ruptured.

After sitting out the rest of the season, he was a starter the next season and completed a stellar junior year where he passed for 1,801 yards. Now, the 6-foot-5 Burns is a top college football prospect. Division I programs courting him include Boston College, University of Virginia, Stanford, Rutgers, Boston, West Virginia University and Penn State.

Speedy Recovery

Jessop, too, opted for surgery — this with both Dr. Johnson and his younger brother, Dr. David Johnson, who practice together at the National Sports Medicine Institute. Within two months of the outpatient surgery at the Inova Surgery Center, Jessop made a return for Broad Run High School’s first playoff game, finishing his junior season with 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns, despite playing in just four games.

“Dr. (David) Johnson got me back as soon as I could,” Jessop says. “He told me not to push too hard.” Jessop started rehabbing first with arm bands, then shoulder exercises. He then progressed to throwing a tennis ball like a dart, then a baseball, a football and finally a medicine ball. “I think I’m better after the surgery than beforehand,” says the 6-foot-4 Jessop, who also plays shortstop on his high school baseball team. “My throwing shoulder actually feels better than before the surgery and my fastball went up 4–5 miles an hour.”

He recently signed with Virginia Tech as a preferred walk-on after leading Broad Run to Virginia’s region semifinals this past year, passing for 1,888 yards with 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. “That’s what sports medicine is all about,” Dr. David Johnson says. “To help prevent injuries and help people return to their level of play as quickly and safely as we can.”

	Shape Up Go here for a referral to one of our orthopedic physician experts. Specialty: Orthopedic Surgery. Hospital: Inova Loudoun Hospital.