Jobe
performed groundbreaking elbow surgery on John, a Dodgers pitcher who
had a ruptured medial collateral ligament in his left elbow. The injury
previously had no solution until Jobe removed a tendon from John's
forearm and repaired his elbow. John went on to pitch 14 years after the
operation on Sept. 25, 1974, compiling 164 more victories without ever
missing a start because of an elbow problem.
"Today I lost a GREAT friend," John tweeted.
Last year, the initial surgery and the relationship between John and Jobe was the subject of an ESPN documentary.
"When
he did come back, I thought maybe we could do it on somebody else,"
Jobe told The Associated Press in 2010. "I waited two years to try it on
somebody else, but we had no idea we could do it again."
Jobe
initially estimated John's chances of returning to the majors at less
than 5 percent. He later said 92 to 95 percent of patients return as
good, if not better, than before the surgery.
The surgery has since become
common practice for pitchers and players at every level of baseball,
including New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey, Washington star Stephen
Strasburg, Milwaukee's Tim Hudson and Minnesota's Francisco Liriano.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sports-medicine-pioneer-frank-jobe-dies-88-032621880--spt.html
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