1) In an unsurprising move (at least not surprising to our readers) the Pittsburgh Penguins have overhauled their medical staff. The Pittsburgh Penguins named Dr. Christopher Harner to lead the team's medical staff. Dr. Harner replaces Dr. Charles Burke, who was removed after 24 years with the organization. Why is this not surprising to we at Fauxrumors? Well, almost a year ago we did a post called next-great-one-career-threatened. In the post we specifically say with regard to the medical staff:
What we at Fauxrumors find amazing is that no one is blasting the Penguins medical staff for not being on top of this situation. It was CLEAR as crystal that Crosby's bell was rung pretty dam good at Heinze Field. He even forgot to get on the ice at the end of the game as the extra attacker. Wouldn't that be a pretty big Red Flag?? Yet we haven't heard a wit of a negative comment towards the Pens and their coaching/medical staffs with respect to this literal malpractice/mishandling the health of their best player!
2) Then very specifically we went right at the Penguins medical staff, (Dr Drew seen above) in a post we did last January: penguin-doctors-incompetent. Evidently we had our information correct there. Teams don't generally have a complete flushing of their entire medical staff from top to bottom. Apparently management saw what we did; Utter incompetence. As we also wrote then it was the Crosby family that demanded this change. They lost total confidence in their abilities to care for Sid. They didn't want to go public like the Lindros camp did 2 decades earlier with regard to Eric's near fatal (undiagnosed) lung problem. We have been told that part (unwritten) of the contract agreement that Sid signed recently was that the Pens overhaul their medical team and bring in specialists who are acquainted with and have treated concussions. Lets hope the new medical professionals have their patient's best interests in mid when they are being treated, and not whats best for the team's performance.
4 comments:
I have found it troubling to read about Mr. Crosby's various ailments not being properly assessed or treated.
I hope going forward that this new medical staff will be able to better provide both treatment of injuries, but as inportant, be proactive in preventing or limiting injury.
1) Dr.! Great to have ya weigh-in! What we find amazing is that NO ONE other than here have mentioned the penguins medical staff as being a problem.
2) WE agree, hopefully this change will help improve the treatment of their, and by extension all NHL players
Well guess what Einstein, it was UPMC's concussion specialists, the same people NOW in charge, that Dr. Burke referred Sid to for this particular injury. (Dr's specialize- Burke's specialty is the knee/elbow/shoulder) And don't you think if he had "neck pain" his neck wasn't MRI'd? Please, give me a break! But an LA Dr. suddenly discovers it- but it's all better, and healed and gone away ....hmmmm ....but he gets his name in the news...from LA?
DianeK: 1) Firstly, welcome to the blog and the blogging world in general.
2) The issue isn't the competancy of UPMC; Its one of the better institutions of its kind in the country, it was the speed of the diagnosis(or lack there of)
3) By the trainers and physicians missing the initial concussion at the Winter Classic, it enabled Sid to be reinjured the next game by Hedman, which (if you ask any neurologist-and we have) is the biggest potential debilitating aspect of concussion treatment-having a second brain injury BEFORE the first heals.
4) Clearly the medical staff dropped the ball and the second subsequent 'neck injury' was the proberbial 'last straw' for the Crosby family, and they demanded a change.
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