NBA Coach Steve Kerr Had A Terrible Complication With Back Surgery

After many years and many championships, the NBA’s Steve Kerr still roams the sidelines as the Golden State Warriors’ head coach. His athletic and youthful appearance, as well as the fact he is a former NBA champion himself as a former player, all hide the trauma he went through many years ago—a trauma that is a reminder of how dangerous and devastating back injuries can be.

Routine Surgery Wasn’t so Routine

Many years ago, Kerr had to undergo what was thought to be a routine back surgery. The years of NBA basketball had taken its toll on Kerr’s back, but medically, the surgery was no different from the kind that many accident victims go through. He had a ruptured disc in his spine, an injury that many people in car accidents and falls routinely sustain.

The surgery is a serious and complex one, but one that, nowadays, has a very good success and recovery rate.

Like many accident victims do after the surgery and after recovering, Kerr went back to work.

But Kerr then started to notice some very strange symptoms. He was unable to focus on daily tasks. He was having headaches. He was feeling dizzy. Because these are not long term side effects that usually happen after the kind of back surgery that he had, he had no reason to relate these bizarre symptoms to the surgery. In fact, Kerr noted, his back actually felt pretty good—much better than before the surgery.

Botched Surgery

After tests and diagnostics, doctors found the cause of the problems: The back surgery was not as routine as first thought; while it did fix his back, a mistake during surgery had ruptured Kerr’s cerebral spinal fluid.

The fluid was not leaking out from where it normally is supposed to be—surrounding the brain—and was putting pressure on internal organs. This is much like symptoms from an internal bleed, when blood fills the internal cavities, and can shut down organs if the pressure on those organs gets to be too significant.

Kerr would eventually need two more surgeries—making it three in total, before the problem was completely remedied.

It Can Happen to Any of Us

Kerr is a well paid NBA coach and a former athlete. These kinds of people don’t just miss work. If what started as a routine back surgery can put Kerr out of work for over a year, as it did, it can certainly do the same thing to you and me.

Will every back surgery end up as complicated and error prone as Kerr’s did? Of course not. But his case is a reminder that every case is different, and you just never know who will heal and be back to work, and life, like new, and who may face complications that impact them for a long period of time after an accident.

Back injury because of an accident? Contact our Rhode Island personal injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 today.

Sources:

bleacherreport.com/articles/2708199-steve-kerr-underwent-spinal-cord-leak-procedure-for-back-injury

forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2017/04/29/warriors-coach-steve-kerr-shows-why-you-should-be-wary-of-back-surgery/