What seemed to be a common occurrence in a contact sport led to a devastating result for the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback — deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli — ultimately cutting his season three months short.
Eagles star quarterback Jalen Hurts’ left calf was stepped on by an opposing player Oct. 4. After undergoing an ultrasound six days later, which revealed a superficial blood clot, Hurts was given the green light to play the Jacksonville Jaguars in London the very next day.
A follow-up ultrasound back in Philadelphia showed that the blood clot had traveled, resulting in Hurts being ruled out for their Oct. 18 game against the Carolina Panthers. And the next day, Hurts’ agent and the Eagles released a statement sharing that Hurts’s diagnosis had further developed into deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli.
To treat both conditions, Hurts will now have to take blood thinners for the next three months, ending his season after only five weeks.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni defended the Eagles medical staff’s decisions in handling Hurts’ season-ending diagnosis. Others, like the National Football League Players Association, have raised questions. The labor union, which represents NFL players, called for an investigation into Hurts’ case to learn more about the timeline and how Hurts’ diagnosis was assessed throughout.
How did an injury to the leg become season-ending?
Dr. David Zlotnick, an interventional cardiologist and professor at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, says that an injury to the leg — such as being stepped on — can cause swelling at the injury site, which can then “compress and impair venous blood return back to the heart.”
The compression and impairment of blood flow combined with a long-distance trip, like Philadelphia to London, creates a higher likelihood for blood clots to develop.
“With long-distance travel, during which time he is very sedentary, is a setup for blood stasis — impaired blood flow — which can lead to clot formation,” Zlotnick wrote in an email to The Spectrum.
With many possible factors leading to blood clot formation in the legs, including genetics, trauma, and prolonged travel, Zlotnick says that it's unclear how these clots break free and travel.
“However, when they do, they usually travel to the lungs and block blood flow in the pulmonary arteries, resulting in pulmonary emboli,” Zlotnick says.
With patient privacy laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the general public may never know all the exact details of Hurts’ injury.
However, Brian Bratta, UB’s associate athletic director of Sports Medicine and Wellness Services, says that whether one is working with college-level or NFL players, medical professionals “have to be there for athletes’ health and safety”.
Although teams across college football and the NFL have different protocols regarding injuries, players “need to report” an injury to medical staff, says Bratta.
Following a player's report of an injury, medical staff conduct an evaluation of the player. If the injury occurs during a game, the player must receive an evaluation and a “physician clearance” to return to the game. However, if a player notifies the staff of an injury during practice, as Hurts did, the player would go through the evaluation, imaging or further testing, and then discuss their rehabilitation plan and participation levels with the team's medical staff.
“A lot of times we don’t just want to shut them down,” Bratta said. “We keep them a little bit active, but also within a range to let them heal as well.”
An injury can also affect the athlete psychologically, Bratta says. When a player, like Hurts, can no longer partake in any contact due to an injury, their identity as an athlete is affected by the lack of participation in their sport.
To help athletes maintain a more positive mindset throughout their recovery, medical staff, like UB Football’s, keep injured players engaged with “mental reps,” such as helping teammates figure out strategies or participating in team meetings and play calls.
In regards to physical activity, the exercises an athlete can do are entirely dependent on the medicine they're on and what their physician is like, says Bratta.
“There are some medicines that are a little more aggressive than others, and there are some physicians that are a little more conservative than others,” Bratta said. “But we never shut them down. We never just shun them away and push them to the side and say you're no longer part of the team.”
The Philadelphia Eagles may agree with Bratta. Last week, Hurts was seen at the Eagles practice facility, where he sat in on numerous meetings.
But Hurts’ career isn’t likely to end as the team and his agent described the prognosis as “very good,”, and he is expected to make a full recovery.
And also leave it to a doctor: Zlotnick says that Hurts’ injury was likely provoked by the initial leg injury, meaning that once healed, the likelihood of him getting another blood clot should return to normal, unless he faces a provoking factor in the future.
Kelly McKiernan is an assistant arts editor and can be reached at kelly.mckiernan@ubspectrum.com.
