Ray Shero, Dr. Michael Collins on UPMC, Dr. Ted Carrick and Sidney Crosby all spoke this afternoon regarding Crosby’s situation.
Ray Shero began the press conference giving out his condolences to the family and friends of those who lost their lives in the tragic plane crash in Russia, where several KHL and former NHL players including former NHL star Pavol Demitra were killed in the crash. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the crash….
Doctors expect full recovery
Doctors and Sidney Crosby were extremely positive and upbeat regarding Crosby’s long-term recovery.
While Crosby is still dealing with headaches, he has come a longway from where he was last January.
“I first saw Sid on January 6th, ” Dr. Michael Collins of UPMC said. When I saw Sid {on Jan 6th}, he was having very consistent symptoms. Consistent with a significant cerebral concussion. He was foggy. Feels like your one step behind yourself. Feels like your in slow motion. He had headaches, he had fogginess, he had difficulties with fatigue, he had light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, he had a hard time thinking. When I saw Sid’s profile and symptoms, I knew were were in for a long recovery.”
Crosby indicated during the media session that in the first month or so, he had difficulties doing daily activities such as driving, watching tv and even attended a team meeting with a video session and he wasn’t able to withstand it.
“It makes sense from where his injury was, it’s going to take a while to rehabilitate this and we have done a very good job of doing that, Collins said on where things stand right now. “This is a manageable injury and we are making progress in Sid’s case and I anticipate Sid returning to hockey.”
All parties involved, as expected, have absolutely no clue when Crosby will return to hockey but the common belief is that a full recovery will happen.
“I can guarantee you we will not be making any mistakes in this case, ” Collins said. Before Sid goes back to play, we will make sure he is 100% recovered, no if’s and but’s about it.”
Collins feels a breakthrough has been made with the help of Dr. Ted Carrick.
“Over the course of the summer, we initially rehabilitated Sid to the point where he became more active, starting to skate, was doing well and we got to that 80-90% level of exertion, increased speed of playing hockey, increased his turns and motion and symptoms started coming back again, ” Collins said.
At that point, Dr. Carrick became involved, Collins said. Dr. Carrick is an expert in rehabbing these type of injuries and has apparently played a big role in some progress being made of late. When speaking, Dr. Carrick said he took a different approach to evaluating Crosby’s injury, getting numbers, data and different type of stratigies. He feels that they now have everything they need to treat Crosby. “Dr. Carrick called this recovery like “Christmas” for Crosby in that he expects a full recovery, based off latest findings.
“Since then {Dr. Carrick got involved} Sid has made exceptional progress. We are seeing “significant improvement” lately, Collins said.
Here is over 25 minutes of Audio from the Press Conference