Gorkys’ Broken Finger

AA outfield prospect Gorkys Hernandez broke his right ring finger on Wednesday. Word from farm director Kyle Stark (via Rob Biertempfel):  “Dislocation. Surgery. (Out) 8-12 weeks.” Having recently broken this same finger myself I can empathize greatly with Gorkys and hope he fully recovers. Gorkys’ injury is clearly more severe than my own but for comparison, this has been my path to recovery:

Night of the injury. It would turn a lot darker purple over the next day.

My break was non-dislocated and I required no surgery. But the healing has been slow. My fracture was close to the very tip of my finger, under the nail. It was caused by the ball slamming into the end of the finger while attempting to catch it instead of smashing it against a bat. I thought it was just badly jammed. After about a week the swelling went down, which is when I noticed that it no longer pointed the same direction as it had. That was when I decided to see a doctor. The hand specialist I was referred to didn’t have an open appointment for a week, so it was two weeks after the initial injury before I got x-rays and was properly diagnosed. I spent the next two weeks in a splint to cushion against any incidental contact. Fortunately I’m not a touch typist. Yesterday was nine weeks since the break. The bone is healed now but the joint is still off-kilter and has some pain when I leverage too much weight against it. The range of motion hasn’t returned yet as I am not able to close that finger completely. On my last checkup the doctor said I’ll always know that I broke that finger, with some random pain cropping up from time to time. I played some tennis last week which went pretty well, except for one shot that I hit weakly with a loose grip. That shot gave me a spike of pain and I was done. I can’t imagine going to a batting cage right now for even some slow pitch. Physical Therapy for the joint starts on Monday and I have another checkup in three weeks.

Today. Swelling and color are normal. Finger bends left at the first joint.

That’s my experience with this. I hope it gave you some insight to what Gorkys will be dealing with over the next two-three months. I’m sure he’s receiving better and more directed care. As a professional athlete his only job right now is to heal so he can get back on the field. He’s also younger and will probably heal relatively faster though the severity of the injury will mitigate that to some degree.