We don't know whether or not he was a candidate for ADR.
Sadly, most American surgeons have been slow to adopt ADR. IMHO, this is primarily because of reimbursement issues.
There are a lot of world famous medical institutions that are beyond state of the art for many illnesses. People go to these clinics, expecting that they will get state of the art care. If you have cancer, the Mayo clinic may be the place to be, but for spine problems, they are just another surgery mill. Still, people flock there because of the name.
All over the country, there are surgeons who's patients think that they are world fameous because the have heads of state and professional athletes come to them. This does not mean that you'll get state of the art care from them, it just means that they have become prominent surgeons.
I have ADR's in my neck and lumbar spine. I don't think I'd want to play pro-football, with or without ADR's. With my Dr. Zeegers lumbar surgery in 2002 I was told, "you have no restrictions except, no contact sports at the professional level."
I don't believe that the decision making process of a professional football player has much of a relationship to the average patient's decision making process.
Mark
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