GULF BREEZE, Fla. Dressed in cerulean blue scrubs and white rubber boots, the most well-known orthopedic surgeon in America exits Operating Room Number 3 at the Andrews Institute, where athletes from all sports come to have their careers saved. James Andrews has just finished saving another one, that of Giants safety Stevie Brown.
Before he can take a bite of his post-surgery blueberry muffin, Andrews makes a call to Giants team physician Russell Warren. He gets Warrens voicemail.
Hey, Russ. Jim Andrews. Stevie Browns down here. I just got through doing his ACL.
Brown had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in a preseason game 12 days earlier on one of those all-too-common awkward plants. He commissioned Andrews to replace the small but critical bridge of tissue between the tibia (shin) and femur (thigh) bone that, when torn, instantly ends an athletes season.
ACL surgery is ubiquitous in sports. But what do most of us really know about it? Do we know it involves a power drill boring into leg bone? Do we know that so much cleansing saline solution is pumped into the knee during surgery that Andrews wears calf-length all-weather boots in the operating room? Do we know the ligament can be reconstructedat least in this casein just 63 minutes?
Thats what happened inside an operating room in northern Florida on Sept. 5. Brown allowed The MMQB behind the scenes to chronicle one of the most critical and intimidating days of an athletes career. Andrews and his team of six medical professionals carved, probed, debrided, drilled and screwed inside Browns left knee jointthis common surgery nothing short of incredibly complex.
Surgical Observation Room | 8:32 a.m. CDT
Andrews sits on a couch, eating a banana and watching baseball highlights on SportsCenter. He seems relaxed. Why wouldnt he be? The 71-year-old performs about 500 orthopedic surgeries a year and has...
