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Sixth Cleveland Brown Stricken with Staph Within Last Four Years
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Joe Jurevicius is the sixth player from the Cleveland Browns to contract a staph infection in the last four years. In each case, the infected player had recently had surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.
30-Second Summary
The wide receiver for the Browns seems to be recovering from the infection and is expected to participate in the minicamp in June.
Brown center LeCharles Bentley was not as lucky. He developed staph following his July, 2006, surgery to reconstruct his torn patella tendon. After undergoing three more surgeries because of complications from the infection, he has yet to play.
Jurevicius developed staph after knee surgery. Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said she didn’t believe the staph infection to be connected with the surgery.
Jurevicius follows five other Browns who also had staph infections: LeCharles Bentley, Kellen Winslow, Braylon Edwards, Brian Russell and Ben Taylor. All six players had undergone surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.
A Cleveland Brown’s fan blog suggests, perhaps in jest, that “the Clinic is secretly attempting to sabotage the Browns,” possibly because it “is full of Steelers fans.”
Many, but not all, staph infections are caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). An MRSA outbreak in October 2007 caused concern. MRSA, which is generally associated with hospitalized patients but is increasingly being contracted outside a hospital setting, had infected 28 professional athletes by October 31, including Grant Hill of the NBA, who nearly died from it.
Joe Jurevicius also made headlines in 2003 when his Tampa Bay Bucs won the Super Bowl. He entered the spotlight because of the serious illness of his newborn son, Michael, who later passed away.
Brown center LeCharles Bentley was not as lucky. He developed staph following his July, 2006, surgery to reconstruct his torn patella tendon. After undergoing three more surgeries because of complications from the infection, he has yet to play.
Jurevicius developed staph after knee surgery. Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said she didn’t believe the staph infection to be connected with the surgery.
Jurevicius follows five other Browns who also had staph infections: LeCharles Bentley, Kellen Winslow, Braylon Edwards, Brian Russell and Ben Taylor. All six players had undergone surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.
A Cleveland Brown’s fan blog suggests, perhaps in jest, that “the Clinic is secretly attempting to sabotage the Browns,” possibly because it “is full of Steelers fans.”
Many, but not all, staph infections are caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). An MRSA outbreak in October 2007 caused concern. MRSA, which is generally associated with hospitalized patients but is increasingly being contracted outside a hospital setting, had infected 28 professional athletes by October 31, including Grant Hill of the NBA, who nearly died from it.
Joe Jurevicius also made headlines in 2003 when his Tampa Bay Bucs won the Super Bowl. He entered the spotlight because of the serious illness of his newborn son, Michael, who later passed away.
Headline Links: Jurevicius joins the list
Joe Jurevicius is the sixth Cleveland Browns football player to contract a staph infection in the last four years. Symptoms began about two weeks after his knee surgery. The Browns wide receiver should be able to make it to the minicamp in June, according to Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer.
Source: The Plain Dealer
In regard to Jurevicius’s staph infection, Cleveland Clinic hospital spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said, "we don't believe it was related to the surgery." Browns center LeCharles Bentley is “still is trying to return from complications from the staph infection that required three additional surgeries following the reconstruction of his torn patella tendon in July, 2006,” according to the Associated Press.
Source: The Toledo Blade [Associated Press]
Background: The case of LeCharles Bentley
In October 2006, Sporting News posted a story about the recent hospitalization of LeCharles Bentley, the fifth case of staph infection in three years. After having the Browns' facilities inspected, general manager Phil Savage said, “They have since come back to us and informed us that their conclusion is that any of the cases we've had have been unrelated and the Browns have done everything possible to prevent any kind of infections in our locker room, on the field, in the indoor (facility), all those things." According to the article, there had been similar staph infection cases in the St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers organizations.
Source: Sporting News
Opinion & Analysis: Comments on the wave of infections
A Cleveland Brown’s fan blog reacted to the infection of Joe Jurevicius by asking, “Is the Cleveland Clinic Trying to Kill Browns Players?” The blogger continues with an intriguing, but unsupported, insinuation: “Just remember this: the Cleveland Clinic is full of Steelers fans.”
Source: Dawg Pound Daily
The most seriously affected of the six was LeCharles Bentley, who came close to losing his leg—and his life. A post in AOL’s the FanHouse considers Bentley’s recovery to be “miraculous;” the writer goes on to say that “One of the bizarre parts of this story is how little the Browns have had to say about Bentley's comeback. I'd love to hear some theories for why the Browns have avoided talking about Bentley.”
Source: AOL Sports
Related Links: Joe Jurevicius and his son’s tragic death
Jurevicius played for the Tampa Bay Bucs when they went on their Super Bowl run; in the midst of the run, his first son was born prematurely and remained quite ill. The family tragedy played out on a national stage, as columnist John Romano explains in the St. Petersburg Times.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Speaking about the death of his son, Jurevicius said, "For two and a half months I went through a roller-coaster of emotions. From the highs to the lows, back to the highs,” but “I've become a stronger person for it. I think I've become a better husband for it. I think I've become a better family man for it. I think that Michael helped me become a better football player."
Source: ESPN
Reference: MRSA
An October 2007 findingDulcinea article reported on the presence of MRSA, a deadly antibiotic-resistant variant of staph, in Connecticut, Maryland and New York schools. Not all staph cases are caused by MRSA, however.
Source: findingDulcinea
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