Friday, October 18, 2002
Ortega's temperature reportedly rises to 107.5 degrees
ESPN.com news services
Miami linebacker Buck Ortega's shoulder surgery was anything but routine Wednesday afternoon.
Ortega's temperature rose to over 107 degrees following the surgery, but he was in stable condition Thursday evening, according to a report in the Miami Herald.
"'I just keep telling Buck, 'God saved you for something,''' his mother, Joanne, said to the newspaper. "His temperature went from 98.6 to 107.5 in seconds. The anesthesiologist said, 'You do not understand the gravity of what happened.' It was very, very, very, very serious. How can I be anything but happy and thankful?''
Joanne said her son, a redshirt freshman, will be tested for Malignant Hyperthermia, a chain reaction triggered by commonly used general anesthetics, in two months, the Miami Herald reported.
The surgery Wednesday was on his left shoulder and Ortega will need surgery on his right shoulder after the season.
''I believe [Buck] tore his labrum,'' his father, Ralph Ortega, said in the Herald report. "The labrum was repaired and they drilled through the bone and sewed everything up. It was season-ending regardless of what happened [Wednesday]. He'll be one month in a sling and another four weeks getting his range of motion. It will be eight weeks before he can do any intensive training.''
