Jenks Explains Life-Threatening Back Ailment
(CBS) Former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks recently disclosed the details of a back ailment that could have cost him his life this past December.
A report from the Boston Globe indicates that after Jenks was recovering from a pulmonary embolism, he traveled to Boston and had surgery on his spine on Dec. 12 at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Later in the month, Jenks was rushed into emergency surgery due to complications related to the first procedure.
"I don't know whose fault it was," Jenks said. "But there was an error done inside. I had four bone spurs on my spine. We talked about taking the top two out. The third one was started and not finished. So, basically, there was a serrated edge that sliced me open in two different spots and I was leaking spinal fluid."
Jenks said the fluid pooled at the bottom of his incision and was constantly leaking.When he noticed the leak, he was immediately rushed into surgery.
"It kind of blew up on me," he said. "It caused an infection to climb up that incision wound. So now I had an infection in my spine. It was a combination of everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.
"If I didn't have it done immediately, the infection could've gotten into my spinal fluid and up to my brain. Who knows what happens then? I could obviously not be here right now."
