Surgeon Says Tiger Woods’ Leg Injury is ‘More Difficult to Heal’

It was earlier this week that golf legend Tiger Woods suffered catastrophic injuries in a car crash in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

On Tuesday, the 45-year old was driving shortly after 7 a.m. PST when his SUV had crossed the median and went through two lanes of road before it hit a curb, then a tree, and then landed sideways in the brush.

The crash left Woods with injuries to his leg that required a rod, screws, pins, and a surgical release of the muscle covering.

Anish Mahajan, interim CEO/CMO of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said Woods was initially treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance but was transferred Thursday to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles “for continuing orthopedic care and recovery.”

“He is still in that acute phase where they may still have a lot of work to do in the present, in moments, in days to come,” Dr. Jeremy Faust, emergency physician Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told CNN on Wednesday. “It’s unclear to me whether he will be going back to the operating room or not.”

“On behalf of our staff, it was an honor to provide orthopedic trauma care to one of our generation’s greatest athletes,” Mahajan said in a statement.

Authorities believe that the incident was “purely an accident,” but will have to pull the black box event recorder from the vehicle to confirm.

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Scott Boden discussed Tiger Woods’ injuries and what his recovery could look like on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.”

“We know that because it was an open fracture, meaning that the bone penetrated the skin, at least temporarily, and that it was broken in multiple places, that this was a very high energy fracture, and that makes it a little bit more difficult to heal,” said Boden.

“If those injuries involved the smooth articular surface of the bones where they move in the ankle or in the foot, then that could be a problem with longer-term recovery and arthritis and getting back full range of motion,” explained Boden in the interview.

Boden also noted that there “is a chance of infection.”

According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, Woods is lucky to be alive.

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