Getting Athletes Back in the Game at Floyd

Baptist Health Floyd: Getting Athletes Back in the Game at Floyd

Kristopher Abeln, MD, covers the way the sports medicine and orthopedics program at Baptist Health Floyd helps athletes recover from injuries and get back in the game.

Getting Athletes Back in the Game HealthTalks Transcript

Kristopher Abeln, MD, Orthopedic Surgery & Sports Medicine:
At Baptist Health Floyd, we have a comprehensive program with orthopedic physicians, sports medicine physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists. We provide year-round, comprehensive care to those athletes on the field, in the office, in surgery, and in the recovery phase. We provide trainers at multiple high schools and middle schools in southern Indiana. They’re on the field for practice and games and available to the coaches to help cover and maintain safety at their schools.

Our philosophy is to try to have a role in injury prevention and some of the training before injuries happen. Once they do unfortunately happen, we provide prompt treatment to get things stabilized and healing correctly from the start and then get them back to play. That’s the three areas where we really feel we intervene, and our trainers are vital in that.

Griffin is a soccer player at one of the high schools where we provide athletic training coverage. Unfortunately, he suffered a fall, which is a common injury for these types of athletes. His athletic trainer was worried about an injury based on his evaluation on the sideline. That worry prompted a call to me, to get him in and see him, which we aim to do sometimes same-day or sometimes within 24 hours. We unfortunately confirmed that he did suffer a fracture in the bone of his arm, and we were able to immediately treat that, correct it, and start him on the healing process. Our ultimate goal with our athletic trainers and myself is to get the kids back on the field injury-free, recovered and having fun.