Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith went into detail about his grisly leg injury for the first time in an interview with ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” saying his life was on the line when he had gone septic.
“Very much lucky to be alive, very lucky to still have my leg,” Smith told host Jeremy Schapp.
In a November 18 game against the Houston Texans, Smith suffered spiral fractures in his right leg upon being sacked. The broken bones ripped through his skin.
Smith said his initial surgery went “great” and he was preparing to be discharged before Thanksgiving when the infection, sepsis, was first discovered.
“At that point, I don’t remember much,” Smith said. “For a few weeks I had quite a few surgeries in a row, debridements, trying to get the infection under control. And then the next thing I remember is waking up several weeks later faced with the decision of amputation or limb salvage at that point.”
Sepsis is a life-threatening yet common complication when the human body has to fight off an infection.
“You wake up and you hear that, you hear your wife and family and doctors tell you how close you were,” he said. “Having gone septic — I had no idea what that even meant. I didn’t know the mortality rate. I didn’t know how many people sepsis kills every year, even in hospital care. It’s that dangerous.”
Smith is now walking, even running and throwing passes, and has said he still aims to play in the NFL again. The timetable is uncertain, though, and it might have to be with another team as Washington moves forward with Dwayne Haskins as its starter.
Smith spoke with reporters at the end of the 2019 Redskins season, where he said there is no “blueprint” of another professional athlete returning from the same sort of complex injury as his — but that won’t stop him from trying.
“This hasn’t really be traveled before, and I embrace that challenge,” he said at the time.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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