Doctors Say Kevin Ware's Injury May Have Been Exacerbated By Undetected Stress Fractures

After getting over the initial shock and horror that came from watching Kevin Ware snap his leg in half last night, many people were left wondering how suffering an injury as gruesome as Ware's on such a seemingly innocuous play was even possible. Yes, he landed awkwardly, but it's hard to imagine how an ungraceful landing could lead to a compound fracture.

Two doctors were left wondering the same thing, and as ABC reports, they think that Ware's injury might have been made possible by the presence of small, previously undetected fractures:

"He came down hard, landing in an awkward way," said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and a former sideline physician for the New York Jets football team. "That combined with an underlying bone issue or an existing stress fracture predisposes someone to this type of injury."

Tim Hewett, director of sports medicine research at Ohio State University agreed. He speculated that Ware's diet could have been deficient in vitamin D and calcium leading to more porous bones. That, combined with the constant pounding Ware endured through an entire season of basketball, may have created small stress fractures in the tibia and fibula bones in his lower leg, causing his bone to snap when he took a bad step.

We hope that this theory turns out to be true, for the simple reason that we are terrified to live in a world where it's possible for healthy leg bones to snap so easily. Either way, you should probably never jump again.

[ ABC]