Oregon high school football players share strange muscle injury
The McMinnville (Ore.) High School football team was back at practice Monday, after more than a dozen players were hospitalized in the last week.
According to doctors, 19 of the players suffered from muscle damage from an enzyme known as creatine kinase, or CK.
While one of the doctors, Dr. Craig Winkler of Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville, is calling it a weird case, it sounds like the cause of the injuries was an intense training camp put on by McMinnville’s first-year coach Jeff Kearin.
Players and the coach have said that the camp, which began on Aug. 15, was done indoors in non-air-conditioned rooms on days where the outside temperature was over 90 degrees. Players were not allowed to take water breaks until every exercise was done, and if someone messed up, everyone started over again.
High CK levels can result from vigorous exercise, or the use of supplements. The lack of water and extreme temperatures – one report estimates it was close to 115 inside the room – compounded the problem.
According to The Associated Press, of the 19 players admitted, five were treated in the ER and sent home and 14 were admitted to the hospital. Three of those players required surgery to reduce the soreness and swelling in their arms.
There are a few things here that are quite alarming. One is how close to serious injury some of these kids were.
The normal range for CK is 35 to 232 units per liter, but some students showed levels as high as 42,000, putting them at risk of kidney injury, Winkler said to the AP. Those with levels in the 3,000 range were treated in the hospital’s emergency room and released, while those with levels above 10,000 were admitted.
And even once players began falling ill, the camp was allowed to continue. Despite all this, no one in the school district, or anyone who has worked with Kearin in the past, seems to think there was anything excessive or extreme done.
Kearin, who according to oregonlive.com was asked by the school not to comment, said he “didn’t know it could get that hot in Oregon.”
Blood tests for the players are expected back by Wednesday, which would show if any of them had taken any supplements that contained creatine. While creatine is a legal supplement, the players have denied taking it. Most of them were surprised they landed in the hospital at all.
Maybe Kearin isn’t in the wrong here, but he has to know better. He’d have to have been living in a cave for the last 10 years to not know how serious his actions were.
Withholding water during a practice in a sweltering gym? It’s just plain reckless.