ORI BLOG
In the summer of 2018, Shane Kenyon, a multisport athlete at North Kingstown High School, was preparing for a successful junior year on the football team. He couldn't have known the odyssey that lay before him to reach that success.
Just weeks before the season began, Shane suffered a torn lateral collateral ligament (LCL) in his elbow. That’s when his long journey back to full health – and his partnership with the orthopedic specialists at Ortho Rhode Island – began.
Shane and his parents met with Dr. Scott Allen, an Ortho Rhode Island surgeon specializing in care for sports-related injuries of the upper extremity, like Shane’s torn LCL. Often caused by dislocation from a fall on an outstretched hand, LCL injuries in the elbow can result in instability. Dr. Allen determined surgery to repair the ligament was needed, though not immediately; Shane could continue playing football with a brace to stabilize his arm.
But in October of 2018, Shane suffered another blow to his high school athletic career – an injury to his hand.
Again, Shane turned to an Ortho Rhode Island surgeon for help: Dr. Benjamin Phillips, a hand specialist with expertise in plastic and reconstructive surgery, peripheral nerve surgery, and microsurgery. Dr. Phillips diagnosed Shane with an avulsion injury of the flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) from its insertion at the base of the distal phalanx, more commonly known as “jersey finger.” The injury is named for incidents when players grab the jersey of moving opponents, and the tip of the finger is forcefully extended, tearing the tendon from the bone.
This time, surgery couldn’t be delayed. Shane would miss the rest of the football season, along with his North Kingstown teammates’ triumph in the 2018 RIIL Division I Super Bowl.
Dr. Phillips surgically reattached Shane’s damaged tendon to the bone, to restore active flexion to the tip of his finger. The procedure was a success, but recovery presented a new obstacle: eight weeks of hand therapy for Shane to regain full range of motion, enabling him to return to his prior level of function and full participation in his multisport activities. According to Dr. Phillips, “flexor tendon repairs require an experienced hand therapist to navigate the timing for passive and active range of motion.”
Lori Lind, a Certified Hand Therapist and the Hand Therapy Team Leader at Ortho Rhode Island’s Wakefield office, worked with Shane throughout his post-surgery rehabilitation, a difficult process that requires spending six weeks in a splint that holds the entire hand in a flexed posture.
“Flexor tendon injuries are challenging because of the risk of ruptured repair if movement begins too soon,” Lind says of Shane’s recovery. “However, moving too late can lead to excessive scarring, which would impair tendon glide and limit range of motion. Given the extent of his injury, his outcome exceeded my expectations.”
Thanks to the hard work Shane put in with Lind, he emerged from hand therapy fully prepared to tackle his next challenge: elbow surgery. Though his hand had healed before the start of the 2018-2019 basketball season, Shane and his family decided it was best to have the procedure. That winter, Dr. Allen successfully repaired Shane’s torn LCL, setting him on his way to conquer one final hurdle on his road back to athletics: twelve weeks of physical therapy to restore strength and range of motion to his elbow.
“Shane not only had to deal with the tendon injury that ended his football season,” Lind explains, “but was then preparing for another surgery on his elbow which would impact his next season of basketball. That type of obstacle can be discouraging for anyone but especially for a high school athlete. Shane did an impressive job of staying on track and dedicated to his full recovery.”
After enduring his additional physical therapy, and watching his North Kingstown basketball teammates win a Division I RIIL State Championship without him, Shane was cleared to participate the 2019 spring lacrosse season. For the first time in months, he was competing out on the field instead of toiling in the gym.
By June, six months after his elbow surgery, Shane was also cleared to resume regular weightlifting activities. His resilience, hard work, and determination that summer and throughout his rehab finally paid off; nearly a year after his first injury, he was ready to get back on the football field.
And when he did, he made an impact. In his senior season, Shane became a starter on offense and defense for North Kingstown, earning Division I First Team All Division honors, and catching two touchdown passes in the 2019 RIIL Division I Super Bowl en route to a North Kingstown victory.
As he did during his rehabilitation, Shane continues to work toward new goals. Fresh off his great football campaign, he’ll return to the basketball court this winter, hoping to contribute to another successful season.
For Dr. Phillips, the achievements of Shane and other student-athletes are what practicing at Ortho Rhode Island is all about. “It’s watching them progress and return to their sport of choice as if nothing had ever happened,” he stresses.
Lind agrees. “There are few things more rewarding than working with someone who wants to have the best possible outcome and helping them achieve their goal,” she says of her work with student-athletes. “Especially when the outcome is a success like Shane’s, where he not only returned to his sports but excelled at them.”
Learn more about Ortho Rhode Island's sports medicine care. To make an appointment with Ortho Rhode Island’s orthopedic and sports medicine specialists, please call 401.777.7000, option 2.
