Barbaro

AP

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro came out of a day-long surgery Sunday to repair three broken bones in his right rear leg and "practically jogged back to the stall," the colt's surgeon said.

"You do not see this severe injury frequently because the fact is most horses that suffer this typically are put down on the race track."
Dr. Dean Richardson
At this moment "he is extremely comfortable in the leg," said Dr. Dean Richardson, who stressed before the marathon procedure that he's never worked on so many catastrophic injuries to one horse.

Richardson gave the horse a "50-50" chance of survival due to the high risk of post-op infection. Barbaro will be given antibiotics as a method to stave off infection. But even if Barbaro does manage to avoid infection, the road to recovery will last months, Richardson said.

Barbaro sustained "life-threatening injuries" Saturday when he broke bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the Preakness Stakes. His surgery began around 1 p.m. Sunday at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for Large Animals.

At the front gate, well-wishers already had tacked up signs: "Thank you, Barbaro," "Believe in Barbaro" and "We Love you Barbaro."

"You do not see this severe injury frequently because the fact is most horses that suffer this typically are put down on the race track," Richardson said before the surgery began. "This is rare."

Unbeaten and a serious contender for the Triple Crown, Barbaro broke down Saturday only a few hundred yards into the 1 3-16-mile Preakness. The record crowd of 118,402 watched in shock as Barbaro veered sideways, his right leg flaring out grotesquely. Jockey Edgar Prado pulled the powerful colt to a halt, jumped off and awaited medical assistance.

"It's about as bad as it could be," Richardson said of the injury. "The main thing going for the horse is a report that his skin was not broken at the time of injury. It's a testament to the care given to the team of doctors on the track and [jockey] Mr. Prado on the racetrack."

Horses are often euthanized after serious leg injuries because circulation problems and deadly disease can occur if they are unable to distribute weight on all fours.

Barbaro was fitted for an inflatable cast by the attending veterinarian, Dr. Nicholas Meittinis, and the colt trained so expertly by trainer Michael Matz was taken to the Bolton Center.

"Two weeks ago we were on such a high and this is our worst nightmare," Matz said Saturday night at the center. "Hopefully, everything will go well with the operation and we'll be able to save him."

Richardson outlined Barbaro's medical problems: a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint -- the ankle -- was dislocated.

The breaks occurred as a result of an "athletic injury," said Corinne Sweeney, a veterinarian and the hospital's executive director.

"It's an injury associated with the rigors of high performance," she said. "They were designed as athletes and they are elite athletes, thus they incur injuries associated with performance. The frame sometimes plays a role, absolutely."

 

barbaro just might be a super horse after all!!

 

Hey, this is a feel-good story. Sure it's a damn horse, but hell, it's one of the best good news pieces I've seen in months. Life is good.

 

In a shocking upset, it will be Rob Parker, who will compare Barbaro to Matt Millen in a 550-word, 350-graf column.

 

Here's a vote for Dick Jerardi of the Philly Daily News to crank out the definitive piece on this once it all plays out -- hopefully with a happy ending. Dick does a great job on the horses and has been in a groove the last two years starting with Smart Jones Mania. Check tomorrow's Daily News - it'll be worth reading.

Better news is www.philly.com is reporting McClatchy is close to selling the Inky and DN and it's not to those whack jobs from Canada that wanted to gut both staffs.

 

Sorry, here's the link. It's a group of local investors. It remains to be seen if this group will be as good as the one the unions were backing, but it coulda clearly been worse.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/14636012.htm

And don't mean to threadjack here, so let's return to Barbaro here.

 

We can't declare the big boy out of the woods yet, but that is GREAT news. Let's toast one for the doc, the handlers, the Pimlico medical staff and the jockey. If any one of those parties failed to rise to the occasion, we'd be writing Barbaro's obit right now.

 

Which whack jobs from Canada? :

 

I forgot to ask this this morning:
For those of you who are apparently very knowledgeable on this stuff, why did they say a key to his survival was that no skin was broken?

 

The group from Canada was Onex Corp., a Toronto investment firm, and Black Press, a small newspaper chain. Onex talked to the union for the press and delivery guys and said, "We'll save your jobs, but want to gut the newspaper guild."

I started a thread on this on Journalism Topics, so this thread can stay about Barbaro.

 

Have any of you seen the photos of Barbaro from after surgery? And of the X-ray of his leg? OMG!

Can't figure out how to post the photos, otherwise I would.

 

My understanding is that the major risk is infection....if the skin had torn during the race, the chance of contamination would be extreme. Since the leg was only opened under sterile conditions, it enhances his chance for fighting infection...and his chances are still only 50-50.