Alex Smith: Project 11 [Extended Trailer] | E:60

the following segment contains graphic images viewer discretion is advised game day in the NFL is a special thing to feel like the full range of emotions to put ourselves out there to be vulnerable I mean it's living right I mean I said I'm fully alive Alex Smith 14-year veteran has this team in first place in their division Redskins back in business down by 10 here first possession of the second half third down and nine of Houston 24th Smith and a guy at the 40-yard line and Alex Smith is hurt he's hurt bad man look at him he's in a lot of pain as I go down I didn't hear anything it went fuzzy they'll remember Stanley you're right you know big fella just look on his face was he knew it was something serious I asked the coach next to me what happened I thought it was a concussion or something I didn't know somebody else next to him said I saw it his legs into two different places to know immediately your legs broke in bending where it shouldn't bend certainly is a unusual sight we all stand because we realize it's Alex's player down and I looked down at my eight-year-old and he is like welling up with tears and he says mom the carts coming [Music] and the Redskins bench and Texans bench emptied to go pay tribute to Alex Smith who will get the standing ovation as he is driven out of this Stadium what a moment immediately I remember thinking that oh my god season's over [Applause] [Music] and you get carted off that's kind of when the shock it wore off and it got pretty painful at that point we went right into x-ray so we saw a tibia fracture that extended from his ankle all the way up to his knee very complex fracture there was bone sticking out of it now that it's open he's going straight to the operating room there's no waiting around [Music] Alex was rushed here to the Inova Fairfax medical campus and was immediately taken to this trauma room there's always gonna be a higher risk of infection when you have an open wound versus something that was just closed and never penetrated the skin say there was grass or dirt or what-have-you in his wound the wound didn't appear to be very large but you never know we look at a fracture pattern and tells us how it happened a certain area tells the story and his spinal fracture clearly said that his legs torqued you're gonna have an emergency surgery and I'm down in a hospital and on a stretcher like none of that's to be expected I mean I'm still in my football gear they said it'll be fine you're gonna go in there maybe be in the hospital for two days you know do a little bit of rehab while he's in the hospital and then be on your way woke up in the room the leg obviously completely wrapped up and bandaged up he had two plates and multiple screws for the tibia his fibula was also broken and we plated that with a third plate no we started with and we ended up with we were ecstatic he was begging me can I just go home I feel alright and so I went through his pain regimen and I said you know what you're still taking some IV pain medicines and he said I can go home I'm fine I'll be all right I can tough it out I'm getting around on crutches and I'm fine and kind of ready to go and at that whole time I'd kind of been running and off and on little fever kind of a mild fever a fever of 101 five or less as normal and if I remember he spiked to 102 102 3 or something and so they do blood cultures so the trauma Doc's went back and they looked at the wound and everything looked fine the leg looked normal was beat up but it didn't look infected he just progressively got worse and Alex's fever is through the roof and his blood pressure is drop alex is not Alex anymore it's test after test after test I got a call men that his blood cultures are positive meaning he has bacteria in his blood that bacteria blood causes issues like blood pressure issues and heart rate issues to become septic and that's when your things get serious how bad all controlled you could die I remember them doctors coming in and unwrapping my leg in the middle of the night and clearly they were alarmed by something we'd all seen as decisions and wounds day before and they looked like traumatized leg and we've seen a million times it was a impressive a dramatic difference it was black I mean the blisters were huge it was something you wouldn't even I mean I couldn't fathom seeing this in like a war movie they took him back into surgery opened all that up and I will never ever forget this as those surgeons walked out and said well we're in life-saving mode now and leg saving mode but it's in that order thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live-streaming sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus

Channel: ESPN

Views: 388,274

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Id: FPthcRYk2Io

Length: 7min 1sec (421 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020