Hamm Having Surgery Today

May 27, 2008

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This afternoon (Tuesday), Paul Hamm is undergoing surgery to fixate the break in his hand, suffered last Thursday at USA Championships. Dr. Lawrence Lubbers, an orthopedic hand specialist who has previously worked on Hamm’s former teammate, Blaine Wilson, will perform the surgery. Dr. Lubbers is part of the elite Hand and Microsurgery Associates, Inc., a division of Columbus Hand Therapy, LLC. He will perform Hamm's surgery at the Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus.

“We know he’s very competent,” Hamm’s coach, Miles Avery, said of Dr. Lubbers.

Dr. Lubbers evaluated Hamm this morning and found nothing previously unknown about the break, allowing them to proceed immediately with surgery. Dr. Lubbers will fixate the break in Hamm’s fourth, right metacarpal and that hardware—be it a pin, plate, screw or combination thereof—will stay in Hamm’s hand, at least through Beijing.

The outpatient surgery will allow Hamm to be home in his own bed tonight. The plan then is for Hamm to be in a small cast that allows some movement, like grasping, instead of the full immobilization he would have required had he gone the non-surgical route. The surgical fixation also eliminates worry that further damage will be done to the break, allowing rehabilitation to begin much more quickly.

“Four weeks from now we’ll be back up on the apparatus,” Avery told Inside Gymnastics. “Four weeks at the outside—hopefully, [sooner]. With every athlete I’ve worked with it’s always been that way, and I would be hopeful that Paul Hamm will be one of those [guys that are] way ahead of schedule.”

Hamm has experience returning from injury. He broke his right tibia in June 2001 and underwent a surgical repair quite similar to the one he is undergoing today. In ’01, Hamm petitioned onto the World Championship team, competed in the all-around and lead the U.S. to a silver medal, their best-ever world finish to that point. In that case, Hamm was back to full strength in just over four months—more time than he has this year. (Hamm’s 2001 injury occurred in mid-June and the World Championships competition began on October 29, though Hamm was able to perform and prove his “readiness” almost a month before Worlds began.)

“We know we’re up against it to get back there,” Avery added of the ticking clock countdown to Beijing, “and we’re going to do everything we can to get [back] as quickly, and as safely, as possible.”

The men’s Olympic competition begins in just 73 days.

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