Bobby Jenks' Back Problems Were More Serious Than Initially Thought - East Idaho News
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Bobby Jenks’ Back Problems Were More Serious Than Initially Thought

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Getty Bobby Jenks?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1330047541475Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(FORT MYERS, FL) — Boston Red Sox reliever Bobby Jenks was fearing for his life this off-season.

Jenks had surgery December 12th in Massachusetts to remove bone spurs in his back. A few weeks later, when he had returned to his home in Phoenix, he noticed fluid leaking from the incision in the middle of his back.

When he first noticed it, he just bandaged it up and went on with his life, but he soon realized things weren’t getting better. He saw a doctor on December 30th and was rushed into surgery to repair what Jenks called a mistake.

“I don’t know whose fault it was, but there was an error done inside,” he said. “I had four bone spurs on my spine and we talked about taking the top two out. The third one was started but not finished, so basically there was a serrated edge that sliced me open in two different spots and I was leaking spinal fluid. (The spur) pulled off the bottom of my incision and blew up on me, which caused an infection to climb up that incision and now I had an infection in my spine. It was a combination of ‘everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.’

“If I didn’t have it done immediately, the infection could have gotten into my spinal fluid and up to my brain, and who knows what could have happened then? I could not be here right now.”

While Jenks’ fears of death may have been put to ease, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine says he doesn’t expect Jenks to pitch for the team until at least midseason.

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