Sports Medics Put Injured Weekend Warriors Back in the Race

The determination on their faces concealed the pain they must have felt. In the rehabilitation room at the Southern California Center for Sports Medicine, about a dozen patients struggled to recondition shattered limbs and shorn ligaments rendered immobile by injury, disease or decay.

These were injured weekend warriors, those who have pursued sport for health or just the love of a game. They had sought treatment for a variety of ailments, but their ultimate goal was clear: to again be physically active.

And, although the Southern California Center for Sports Medicine has treated members of U.S. Olympic teams and some professional athletes, the bulk of its clientele are members of the recreational set. With a growing number of sports medicine clinics available across an increasingly health-conscious America, the Long Beach center’s founders say they hope to build their reputation with a program that prevents injuries as well as helps them heal.

60 New Cases a Week

The clinic’s staff of 34 doctors, nurses and therapists sees about 60 new injury cases a week. It also provides medical staff for six Long Beach/Southeast high school football programs. Staff doctors often serve as consultants to other athletic institutions in the area, including Cal State Long Beach.

In addition, the center is more than halfway toward its goal of raising $5.5 million for its Wellness and Fitness Center featuring an indoor track, three basketball and two volleyball courts, a pavilion with seating for 2,000 spectators and shower facilities. A joint venture with Memorial Medical Center, the proposed site for the Wellness Center is near the southeast corner of Willow Street and Atlantic Avenue, adjacent to the sports medicine center.

The sports medicine center was built on land leased from the Memorial Medical Center and works closely with the hospital in coordinating patient referrals.

The weekend athlete who spends $100 on tennis shoes and $200 for a tennis racquet in addition to a monthly fee for a club membership often is easily able to pay for medical care. But a wellness center working closely with a sports medicine clinic would do more than that, say its founders--it would be able to prevent injuries and be especially useful for young athletes.

14 Centers in L.A. Area

“We try to serve the needs of the greater Long Beach area as we see them,” said Dr. Douglas Jackson, an orthopedic surgeon. He joined with colleague and co-owner Dr. Curtis W. Spencer III in creating the privately operated sports medicine clinic.

In his tiny office tucked inside the 12,000-square-foot-structure, Jackson, wearing surgical greens and a white lab coat, explained that the clinic’s design is in keeping with his goals for the sports medicine profession.

“Long Beach is a community hotbed of developing athletic talent,” Jackson said. “We have become much more sophisticated in athletics. That’s not to say that there weren’t great athletes 20 years ago, but today there is a lot of pressure on the kid that wants to be a national champion.”

An internationally known pioneer in the field of sports medicine, Jackson is most noted for new techniques in knee surgery. He has lectured on, as well as published, several articles about sports medicine and has co-authored “The Young Athlete’s Health Handbook,” as a sports medicine guide “to parents, players, coaches and teachers.”

Often Misunderstood

In his book and during an interview, Jackson expressed concern that the term sports medicine is often misunderstood or confusing to both patient and many physicians.

“The field of sports medicine is ill-defined,” he said. “It’s a huge, encompassing field.” That misconception, he said, was a driving force for him in creating his own sports medicine center.

Jackson developed an interest in athletic medicine in 1971 as an army physician at West Point. He entered private practice in 1973 and became director of the Memorial Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Clinic, a loosely bound organization of physicians at the hospital that still exists today.

But as he continued in the field, Jackson discovered that “the more and more I got into it, the more and more there was a demand for my own facility and personnel.”

Spencer specializes in problems related to the spine, particularly in older patients. With the technical help of a handful of associates, they opened the center in February, 1984.

A goal of the clinic is to return patients to their normal athletic routine as soon as possible.

In the case of 7-4 center Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz, Jackson performed surgery to repair knee ligaments he tore in a playoff game last spring. Eaton, the 1985 National Basketball Assn.’s Defensive Player of the Year, began practicing this fall after a recovery program that included workouts designed for him at the Long Beach facility.

“My rehabilitation has come along very well,” said Eaton by phone from his home in Salt Lake City. “Dr. Jackson is one guy I trust. I was impressed with the people there and the therapists are all very good. I just wish I could spend more time in California to go to his clinic.”

The center has attracted patients from a wide cross-section of the public.

Peruvian dancer Denise Dibos heard about the center from a relative who worked at Memorial Medical Center. When her career was threatened because of a knee problem, she left South America to visit the clinic. After surgery to repair torn cartilage she underwent rehabilitation therapy and will go home soon.

In early June, Long Beach resident Mike Ferrera blew out a knee and fractured an ankle when he flipped his three-wheel, off-road vehicle in San Bernardino County. A foot peg on the vehicle punctured Ferrera’s leg, which later lost most of its feeling and circulation.

Now Able to Walk

Ferrera was referred to the center by Long Beach City College track Coach Ron Allice. After constant therapy and several operations, he began walking recently.

The clinic “was a very good place,” he said, adding that he expected to return to work by mid-October “100% cured.”

An avid tennis player for 40 years, Jim Magruder of Rancho Palos Verdes sought help from Jackson when a sore knee became a chronic problem. Jackson operated to repair Magruder’s severely twisted knee. Now, through a workout program designed for in-home use, Magruder said he shortly will be back on the court.

“They (the center staff) were very proficient,” Magruder said. “They seem to know what they are doing.”

Eaton said the center is “the most progressive place in Southern California,” and several medical experts agree.

Relate Well to Athletes

“It’s a very good place. The people are excellent and relate well to athletes because they were or are athletes themselves,” said Dr. Howard Worcester, president of the Long Beach Memorial Group. The group represents staff doctors at the Memorial Medical Center. Members often refer patients to the clinic, Worcester said. He indicated that the center has forged a new role in patient-doctor relationships.

“There is no question that Doug (Jackson) and Curt (Spencer) try to relate to their patients,” he said. “Anyone can just look at an X-ray. They’re dealing in a unique way with a patient. That’s a real gift. Most clinics don’t have that . . . comprehensive approach.”

Trainer Dan Bailey at Cal State Long

Beach, who has opened a private sports rehabilitation center near the campus, calls Jackson “one of the premier knee surgeons in Southern California. We feel very fortunate to have him (Jackson) as the team orthopedist at the university.”

Interviewed from Minnesota, Dr. Allan Ryan, editor in chief of The Physician and Sports Medicine, called Jackson “as well regarded (in his field) as any orthopedic surgeon treating athletes in this country today.”

The center handles a variety of injuries.

Yet, according to Jackson, the vast majority of athletic injuries go unreported. Strains, sprains, bumps, bruises and abrasions are common injuries for most athletes. They may be accompanied by some swelling and pain, and the injury may slightly inhibit performance. The most common injuries in weekend athletes last only a few days.

But in highly competitive amateur or professional sports, he said, the injury rate for the “elite athlete” is tremendously high.

“When athletes push themselves to maximum performance, their performances always border on injury,” he said. He indicated that such a high injury rate necessitates that trained medical personnel be on call.

Jackson plans to use the center as a proving ground for new medical techniques.

Transplant Ambitions

“We are committed to transplanting ligaments and cartilage,” he said of two experimental processes he is now involved with. The use of donor-tissue experiments in goats has proved successful, Jackson said. He also hopes to make joint-replacement surgery a common technique vital to the future of sports medicine.

Through an ambitious expansion plan, a satellite sports medicine clinic at Huntington Beach opened Oct. 7. It is just minutes away from the home office via the San Diego Freeway, twice the size of the Long Beach facility and equipped for surgery.

Jackson also hopes to better educate both the masses and elite athletes in the prevention and treatment of injuries. He cited the ICE treatment as an example.

“I is for ice. Do not immerse an injury in heat. The C is for compression. Get something like an Ace Bandage on an injury to compress the swelling. The E stands for elevation. If you elevate the injury it should help.”

Back in the gym the workouts continued. The muscles were mending and the ICE treatment was in full force.