An NFL Trainer Explains Collapsed Lungs and the Road to Recovery
A friend of The Rob Breaux Show Show, Tyler Branham, called in this week to explain what exactly a partially collapsed lung is and what is means for a football player.
Branham happens to also have nearly a decade of experience in athletic training, with stops at two universities and multiple NFL teams.
We asked him about the recent diagnosis for Texas Tech quarterback Alan Bowman and how that affects the quarterback moving forward. Branham guided us through the technical jargon and simplifies the rare injury.
"In general, it's not normal to have a collapsed lung." he said. "It's pretty rare."
"Most people do think of this as happening by a rib fracture," Branham continued. "But if there is no other injury, something just happened to the lung and air got in there where it's not supposed to be."
A freak accident for Bowman that doesn't seem as serious as it sounds.
The expert couldn't give an exact timetable for anything specific, but it did seem like a two-week buffer is key. That's some conjecture on my part, but Branham emphasized after a lung injury it was more about getting back into "game shape" rather than doing specific lung rehab.
The important thing here is that it doesn't seem like Bowman will miss an extended period of time. A release from the hospital would be good news for his health, but that has not occurred yet. Don Williams of the Lubbock A-J confirmed Wednesday morning that Bowman was indeed still at Covenant Hospital.
Based on the conversation with Tyler Branham, that doesn't seem to be cause for any concern. "It totally depends what the doctor is seeing, and what they are comfortable with in returning someone back to their normal daily activities," Branham said. "Throwing football (activities) in there is something different."
Branham did mention it could take a few days -- or up to two weeks -- for a lung to fully re-inflate. Once that happens, the rest of the recovery could move fairly quickly.
"It's most important to work out symptom-free and have the endurance to do it," Branham said. "We are dealing with the population that has rare talents and bodies that can typically heal faster."
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