Paul Lee

by TITO S. TALAO

Manila, Philippines – Paul Lee, Rain or Shine’s rookie sensation, should by now be on Day Two of his recovery from surgery to repair ligaments torn after he dislocated his left shoulder in Game 2 of the PBA Governors Cup Finals.

Lee, wrote the Bulletin’s Waylon Galvez, went under the knife Monday evening at the Cardinal Santos Hospital in what Dr. Edgar Eufemio said would be a “quick“ procedure.

It would be the healing and the therapy period that would take a much longer time, maybe “three to four months,” according to Dr. Eufemio.

Good thing the PBA is on a two-month recess. This should give the former University of the East star all the time he needs to heal – and to ponder what he missed being on the bench for that all-important Game 7 against James Yap and the B-Meg Llamados.

Lee, according to the story, underwent a medical procedure called arthroscopic Bankart repair, which, of course, is alien to me.

My 80-year-old mother dislocated her shoulder last year after tripping on a protruding root in her backyard. Famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. Raul ‘George’ Canlas had her brought to St. Luke’s Hospital, worked on her injury at the O.R. for about an hour, and wheeled her out of the recovery room smiling, her right shoulder heavily taped and her arm on a sling.

The elastic band stayed on for a couple of days and the sling remained for about four weeks. After that she was fine. Except for a little stiffness and an occasional pain, mom’s shoulder was as good as new and she was soon back tending to her stuff in her backyard.

She was cautioned by Dr. Canlas, however, to be extra careful not to unhinge her shoulder a second time for that would necessitate surgery.

Lee’s Game Two injury was his second such left shoulder dislocation that conference, the first one suffered just two months ago.

His condition thus required a Bankart repair, which, according to Wikipedia, is “an operation for habitual anterior shoulder dislocation, with the joint capsule sewn to the detached glenoid labrum without du
plication of the subscapularis tendon.”

In short, if I got it right, whatever torn ligament or tendon there is has to be stitched back to the rim of Lee’s shoulder socket (scapula) to tighten it up and prevent future dislocation.

The procedure, according to Wikipedia, is named after Arthur Sydney Blundell Bankart, an English orthopedic surgeon who lived from 1879-1951.

Well, Paul Lee had his Bankart repair.

Now he faces a long, rainy off-season convalescence. But the Rookie of the Year will be fine, and he will be with the rest of the Elasto Painters when the PBA Draft takes place on Aug. 19 at Robinson’s Manila – the same event last year where coach Yeng Guiao grabbed what turned out to be the final piece in the puzzle that completed the championship picture for Rain or Shine.

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