Zach Miller On Gruesome Leg Injury: Amputation Was "Very Real" Possibility

Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller returned to the team facility today for the first time since the brutal knee injury he suffered eight weeks ago. (Do not go back and watch that clip unless you have a perverse interest in seeing a leg bend in a way that it really, really, really is not supposed to.) The situation seemed bad at the time and soon revealed itself to be even worse, but hearing Miller talk about it now makes it all the more frightening.

Miller not only dislocated his knee but also seriously damaged an artery while doing so. From ESPN:

“It was very real,” Miller said when asked about the threat of amputation. “A couple wrong turns away from actually happening. I had a ton of care, a lot of people helping me out through that entire process. But we were a couple minutes away from having that be real. Thankfully, we were able to avoid it and we didn’t really get into where I had stuff that was starting to die off or anything. We were able to save pretty much everything. So I’m very thankful that happened.

“...I remember, before I got into the emergency surgery, the last thing I was telling the doctors was, ‘Please, save my leg!’ Because I knew that something wasn’t quite right just in the way my leg was feeling and the way it was filling up. I knew we had issues.”

The surgery was successful, and Miller is now on crutches with his leg in a brace. It’s unclear whether he’ll be able to play football again.

[ ESPN]