From: Matthew
South Carolina offensive lineman, Ronald Patrick, missed almost the entire spring practice recovering from an eye surgery. Well, this greatly intrigued us, as we had a challenging time coming up with a diagnosis that would require surgery in a man his age and would keep him on the shelf for so long. Patrick is expected to be a contributor next season, and the missed practice time threw a wrench in his development. HIPPA laws prevent us from phoning his medical team to discuss his case, but after listening to post spring interviews, we arrived at an answer that is most likely correct.
When the problem was first announced, we racked our brains for a differential diagnosis of eye surgeries a college student might require. The main problem to work through was why would you do it right before spring ball and not before or after. Obviously, it was urgent, eliminating the initial assumption of congenital cataract. Therefore, the preliminary thought was some sort of eyelid trauma. Coach Spurrier later noted that the main issue was an infection behind the eye. On the serious meter we just jumped from a 2 to a 9. Orbital cellulitis is an emergency and sight threatening. Would Patrick be able to play again? Then, it came out that he was fighting this infection since his arrival on campus. What? The only was this could be the case that we can see, is if this is a subperiosteal abscess in the orbital cavity. In english, that is a walled off infection in the eye socket between the bone and the lining covering the bone. These usually come from sinus infections and the medical team most likely tried to treat it with antibiotics. However, these are very difficult to cure and often require surgery to drain them if they are expanding at a rate where permanent blindness could result. The procedure, which has its own risks, usually is curative and should cause no lasting damage to Patrick's eye or his playing career. Good news for the gamecocks!
