Taylor Said He 'Could Have Been Done' (Updated)
Jason Taylor just informed us that the surgery he had to relieve a blood mass in his left calf Monday morning was of critical importance. Taylor is on crutches with his left calf wrapped, and said that, at the time the emergency surgery was performed, he was told by doctors that with any further delay "you would be done forever." Taylor said at the time the surgery was performed he was told he could have lost his foot. Waiting beyond that could have produced even more dire results.
"I was a little scared about that, and didn't quite understand why it had to be done so suddenly, and wanted to wait," Taylor said. "I actually wanted to wait till the sun came up ... But they kept stressing how important it was to get it done right away."
Taylor said he was told to sleep as much as possible and stay off his feet, with no timetable for a recovery. The injury, which Jim Zorn described Monday as "compartment syndrome," could have caused nerve damage and tissue necropsy and, if untreated, even death. He said he could miss from anywhere from a week to several months as his body heals. Taylor was kicked in the calf in the second quarter of the Commanders' victory Sunday. On Monday, Zorn said he had looked at game tape and no one was certain when the injury occurred.
Taylor had wanted to allow his body to heal more and hoped to delay the procedure until later in the day. The hospital got Commanders surgeon James Andrews on the phone at 5 a.m. and Andrews told them to put down the phone immediately and perform surgery.
"I still was a hard head," Taylor said. "Sometimes the things that make you good could be your demise, too. I was a hard head. I didn't want to do it. I wanted to wait. I wanted to let God try to heal it up some. Sometimes, I guess you've got to help Him out.
"It needed to be done immediately. I wanted to wait a couple of hours. They said, 'You don't have a couple of hours. We should have did it an hour ago.' It was one of those things where time's of the essence and we need to hurry up and do this right away."
As for his recovery, Taylor said, "Everyday it's getting a little better." As for his return to the football field: "Nobody knows when the body is going to respond, because everybody is different. It could be a week and it could be a couple of months."
