Former All Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson says he contemplated taking his life after prolonged surgeries turned into a battle for survival and forced his early retirement.
In August 2018, while contracted to the Portland Timbers in the United States, Gleeson had surgery to treat stress fractures in both legs. It should have been a routine procedure, but he developed osteomyelitis from an infection. What followed was not only a physical struggle but an emotional descent that would push him to the brink.
Fourteen surgeries later, and nearly five years after Gleeson began legal action, a jury found doctor Richard Edelson guilty of medical negligence for failing to properly disinfect the plates inserted into Gleeson’s legs before the initial operation. Gleeson, now 34, was awarded US$20.4 million (NZ$35.7m) in damages.
What was meant to be a three-month stint on the sidelines turned into a nightmare of medical complications and forced Gleeson to retire, having made 59 appearances for the Timbers and winning eight caps for the All Whites between 2011 and 2014.
The fallout has been brutal for Gleeson, who struggles to complete mundane tasks such as exercising. The mental toll has been equally devastating.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine on Weekend Sport, Gleeson says he reached a point where he considered taking his life.
“I’d been prescribed so many opioids, like painkillers and anti-anxiety medication, I filled this pill jar up with enough pills that I know that if I took it all at once it would kill me.
“I drove out a few times to different places around Portland with that. I had that around me for ... a few months and there were some close calls where I thought that that was going to be the day.
“There were points I just didn’t want to live any more. Simple as that.
“But I never went through with it, which I’m happy about. The last few years have been a slow climb out of a very deep, dark hole.”
After his initial surgery, things appeared normal but, after two weeks, an infection on his right leg appeared. Antibiotics initially worked, but the infection worsened and he needed a second operation.
At this point, pus was coming out of the wound and Gleeson was given a PICC line - a type of catheter - that was pumping antibiotics from his leg to an artery near the heart. It was a further two weeks before the plate in his right leg came out.
Days later, problems began in his left leg.
Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson shows his disappointment after the the 4-1 loss against Real Salt Lake in 2017. Photo / Getty Images
“I saw that same redness, same warmth, same everything that was a sign of infection, and they pulled that plate out straight away.
“Because I developed osteomyelitis in my right leg, essentially the infection had travelled through my blood and settled on the foreign hardware on my left leg.
“If they had just removed the plate on the first surgery, or even checked the underside of it to know that that’s where the infection was, we could have avoided a lot more of the surgeries that I went through.”
Gleeson had another appointment with Edelson, who was pleased with the recovery of the left leg, but problems were still occurring with the right.
Despite raising concerns, Gleeson was told “it’s just bad blood flow, the wound will heal and you’re fine”.
An angry Gleeson consulted another team doctor and was immediately rushed to hospital, where he had three surgeries in five days to clear the osteomyelitis and dead bone.
“They had to go in and chunk out parts of my bone and there was dead tissue in there,” he recalls.
“My body had gone septic and I had a 40-degree temperature, cuddling a bag of ice on my couch with all this medicine sti
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I want to get straight into the show today and
just a warning. Our first segment of the show today
discusses serious themes, including suicide. Former All Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson,
who played eight times for the national side between twenty
eleven and twenty fourteen, has been awarded thirty five million
(00:34):
thirty five point seven million New Zealand dollars and damages
after he brought a medical malpractice lawsuit against an ex
team doctor at Portland Timbers football Club. His career came
to a halt in twenty eighteen after surgery to treat
a stress fracture in his leg went terribly wrong. Both
legs became infected after a plate inserted into his leg
(00:58):
hadn't been properly sterilized. This led to multiple surgeries, serious
medical problems, and eventually the end of his professional career.
Jake Gleason is with us on news Talks. He'd be Jake,
thanks for joining us to tell us the story. Take
us back to twenty eighteen, back to the start and
tell us how this all began.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, it's
kind of funny to think back now. I just remember
having some champagne for quite some while some time back then,
and I'm getting worked done for some shin splints. Went
in for an X ray one day, and yeah, they
told me that I had some stress fractures at only
(01:42):
had a stress structure on one side and in the
beginning of the stress fructure on the other side. So
it's a bit of a bit of a cafe fault
this time. But we went into surgery that next week
with about a two to three month recovery time.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Didn't think too.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Much of it, thinking I was going to be out
on the field and probably that two month time frame
back up training playing doing what I loved. So, yeah,
let's left the training field that day, not knowing that
you know what was to come and that would be
the last day would be training or be a professional footballer.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Really, when did it become apparent after that initial surgery
that something wasn't right.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, So it.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Took a few weeks that the infection shut up, about
just over two weeks I believe, from the initial surgery.
It showed up kind of just as a traditional infiction world.
I was put on some medication in for it to
help subside it, which initially did work. At this point,
I had no idea what had occurred in the first surgery,
(02:44):
so you know, when in there took all the antibiotics
that they gave gave me in at the end of
the course of those oral antibiotics, the infection just kind
of came back with a vengeance. And at that point
the second surgery was needed for them to flush out
you know.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
What that infection would be.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
And this is on my right side, so the play
that got inserted that only went through we can get
into the smaller sterilization process. This has only happened in
my right league. My least league's perfectly fine at this time.
So they do the washout, which has an eighty percent
success rate. If it's just a surface label in fiction,
(03:21):
plus me being a young, healthy individual and being on
the oral and at that point at a pick line
and so a tube then when into near my heart,
so I was pumping an antibiotics summer league, we had
a very good chance if it was the surface label
in fiction to kick it, and it probably would have
set me back about you know, maybe maybe two to
(03:42):
three weeks, So that was the first side of the
infection and the first surgery. After the infection, they decided
to not remove the plate and leave the plate. Then
they didn't inspect the underside of the plate or the
screw holes, which where the infection was actually brewing, because
it came from the initial initial surgery and the breaching
sterilization protocol. And so at that point I was just
(04:05):
injecting every six hours, injecting fluid into this PEP line
and just hoping that in fiction would subside and go away.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But it didn't, and you had multiple surgeries after that,
and what it just kept on getting worse.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yes, I'll kind of go through the story as I've
been in the format that I can tell it best. Obviously, Yeah,
it actually just got worse with the infection. My wound
didn't heal and I had pretty gross stuff coming out
of the wound on my right hand side side. At
this point, my left flip was completely fine, no signs
of fiction was always going well, but my right leg
(04:42):
wasn't getting better with any of the antibiotocs that I
was on, and I was on some really really strong
antibiotics at the time. After about another two weeks, I'm
not sure on the timeline, it's been a few years.
They decided to remove the plate on my right leg
that was the side that barely had the streets stracture.
I think at that point the stret structure had healed,
and so I'd gone from having a barely having a
(05:02):
streets fracture to now having sex massive holes in my
right shin. So they went in there, I pulled out
the plate and then did a washout, and then they
closed up that wound. It was a few days later
I went in on a check up for the plate
remove on my right leg, where my left leg started
to show signs of infection. And so essentially what had
(05:25):
happened is at this point I was pretty sick, so
I was gray, I wasn't eating about like I was
rotting from the inside. And I went in and they
saw the left leg, saw that same redness, same warmth,
same everything that was a sign of infection, and they
pulled that plate out straight away. And essentially what had
(05:45):
happened is because I developed ostin melitis and my right leg,
essentially the infection had traveled through my blood and settled
on the foreign hardware. On my left leg. So if
they had just removed the plate on that first surgery,
or even check the underside of it to know that
that's where the infection was, that at that point we
could have avoided a lot more of the surgery that
(06:07):
I went through. On my one week follow up, I
went to see the same doctor and this was the
same doctor who was caring for me. Who's the main
doctor in this in this in this case, doctor Edelson
looked at my leaft leg and he said, yeah, your
left leg's healing really really well. Everything looks okay. It
looks like, you know, we caught it and there's no
future in fiction. I told him I felt like I
(06:28):
was riding from the inside. And then during that appointment,
I said, my right leg isn't healing and there's actually
past still coming out of it and the wound and
this is two weeks post surgery from that right plate
being removed. I was like, my leaf leg, I'm not
concerned about. It does look pretty good because you got
in there and cleaned it up quickly. The right leg
(06:50):
was just oozing passos and passed whos and pass and
he looked at me and said, it's just bad. Blood flow,
the wound will heal, and you're fine. At that point,
I just lost all confidence. I probably should have a
little bit earlier and called another team doctor called him
and said, I need you look my leg. I think
something's wrong and I feel like I'm rotting from the inside.
(07:10):
I went in to see that other doctor the next day,
and then was rushed in to have three emergency surgeries
in five days to clear what would become oustermulitis and
dead bone. And so they had to go in and
chunk out big parts of my bone. It was dead
tissue in there.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
It was, it was. It was a bad, bad scene.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Once you develop ostroumolitis, it's it's about as bad as
it can get as far as an infection goes. My
body's going Septic've got one hundred and four fahrenheit degree
temperature and I'm cuddling a bag of ice on my couch,
which with all this medicine still coursing through me every week.
So it was after the first surgery of the new
(07:51):
doctor when I found out about what had occurred in
the first surgery.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right, So it wasn't until then that you learned of
the unsterilized plate being put in you in the very
first surgery.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, the doctor had essentially broken national state and his
own practices sterilization guidelines. It's about a six hour process
that you have to go through to sterilizing in an
implantable device which stays in the body, and he put
this through about a twenty minute cycle and then pulled
(08:26):
it out early. He didn't even run the full flash cycle,
which is only meant for instruments because they don't remain
in the human body. At this point, it's I want
to say it to October of twenty eighteen, and I've
lost a punch of weight, got really really sick, still
on the perk line, and I've gone from having the
(08:47):
start of two stress fractures to six massive holes in
my shin and i'stum a largis on my right leag
So yeah, it happened really, really, really quickly, and there's
a few gory details in there that I'll leave out
for this interview, but yeah, it was painful to say
the least.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So, Jake point, are you still hopeful of a return
to play?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, So we kind of threw a hail Mary, which
is a football term.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I don't know if the New zeal't want it to
familiar with it.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It's like a when a quarterback just throws the ball
into the end zone and just hopes that his team
catches it.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So in February of the next.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Year, after my bone had kind of after things had
tittered down, I was off antibiotics, we decided to try
and rod my legs, which means you put two I
think the titanium rods through the middle of your tibia
to make it stabilized. And at that point, if that
had worked, that means that those six holes in my
(09:50):
league didn't really matter because the titanium rod would kind
of keep them stable. I don't know the exact date,
but we did both leagues on the same day, So
I've got two rods put on my legs on the
same day. So needless to say, I wasn't moving too much.
Same kind of thing happened on the right leg. Because
of the amount of damage and ostumo lightis reinfections can occur,
(10:13):
and because of how deteriorated that bone in the area was,
that right rod became infected and it kind of followed
the same path line. At this point, the new doctor
was like, if this rod comes out your career is
over and I knew that, so went in for more surgeries.
Was on placed on another pick line, so it was
injecting more things than to me to try and try
(10:34):
and my best to get my career back because once
that thing came out, those holes take years to fill in.
So I'm not passing a Medical Ireland Bay in Wellington
when they picked me up mate with holes in my.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Leg like that.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So eventually it was in the hospital. Was really sick.
Pickline wasn't working. Perkline got infected as well because it
had been on me for so long. I had a
wound that hadn't closed in three weeks and was oozing
us and textious disease. After walked in the room in
the hospital, looked at me, booked how gray I was
and how much weight I lost and basically said that
(11:11):
rod has to come out and has to come out
today and that was it. That was the end of
any chance of playing football game.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So during this time, how much pain were you in?
How much pain are you are you still in?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So going through the surgeries, there's an ebbed and flow
like because you would have one and then you'd get
back where you could start walking around a little bit,
and then you'd have to go on and get another
one and another one. So it was this constant battle
of getting yourself through it. I would say, I would
like to think that I have a pretty high pain
tolerance as a human being. This was, yeah, unbelievably painful.
(11:51):
I think the physical pain, obviously people could probably understand.
I had just think called a wound back put in
my leg, which is like a tube that goes in
and sucks any infection out of your bone. And so
I would click, and when it clicked, I knew it
was about to start. For about thirteen twenty seconds, it
would suck and it was just like agony. I would
start shaking and I would have to hold onto things.
(12:12):
So that was on my leg for a little while.
But yeah, you're just getting cut open it and butchered
for months on end. The physical pain, it was brutal,
But I'm I'm pretty good at handing physical pain. I
would say, there's constant pain, like I don't I don't
know what it is to not have some form of
throbbing or pain in my legs. It will only get worse.
(12:35):
Order I get I'll have to go see some new specialists.
The way that I explain life right now, it's a
cost It's like a cost analysis.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
If I want to go for a long hike, I can.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Do it, but it's just like as it worth the pain,
whereas before I could do it with no issues, no worries.
I tried snowboarding for all this once my bones are
healed up, you know. This is a couple of years ago,
and got the gear and haven't been back since because
the cost analysis didn't work. It was just too painful,
(13:08):
you know, hobbling around the next day. So that's kind
of where my life is right now. It's shooting nerve
pain on occasions. It gets worse with more activity. Running
is something I can do, but like you said, it
gets worse and worse the more I do it. So
you just have to kind of transition your life and
(13:29):
your health and what you used to do to new
normals that they really take the load of what's going
to really impact you and hurt you. So yes, just
a cost analysis is what I call it. And it's
not fun, especially from going from a professional athlete to
thinking about how much is it going to hurt going
on a five kilometer walk?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And I mean that's the physical side of this. What
about mentally, Jake, how much of a toll has this
taken on you mentally? Can you articulate that?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And I'll do my best not to break down for you, mate,
I haven't. I've put it in a box inside me
for a very long time. So the trial I kind
of let it all out. I was able to tell
my story.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
I think.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, there were points where I did I just didn't
want to live anymore simple as that. The best way
to explain it is. I felt the world would be
a bit of place if I.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Wasn't in it.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I was just a burden on my friends, burden on
my now fiance, who's the most wonderful person in the
world for putting up with me, and we had just
started dating seeing them all this happened, and she was, ah,
you know, picking up my scripts, helping me eat when
I can, making me eat.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
And I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
She was there through it all. So there was a
long time where it was Yeah, very very very dark times.
I'll give you. I'll open up quite quite open here.
And the worst that got was I basically had a
pill job because I've prescribed so many you know, oprio.
(15:17):
It's like pain killers and and anti anxiety and all
these things. So I filled this pill jar up with
enough pills that I know that if I took it
all the once, it would kill me. And I drove
out a few times to different places, all one place,
a couple of places around Portland with that, and I
(15:39):
had that around me for a few months and there
was definitely some some close calls where I thought that
that was going to be the day, but never.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Never did.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It never went through with that, which I'm I'm happy about,
but I'm also you know, you battle with the internal
side of it of leating yourself get that bad. So
it's an interesting space to fall in.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
But it was a very.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It was a very dark time and it's something I
wouldn't wish on wash on anyone. And you know, there
were there were a lot of factors that that kind
of led to that for me to get to that point,
and the last few years, I would just say it's
been a slow climb out of a very very deep,
dark hole.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Our guest is former All Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson. Awarded
thirty five point seven million New Zealand dollars and damages
after he brought a medical malpractice lawsuit against an ex
team doctor at Portland Timbers football Club. So you've told
us about what happened, Jake, how did you then decide
upon the path of legal action?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, when once I found out what had occurred in
the first surgery for me, what he had done in
the corners that he had cut.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
As you know, the New Zealand's not you, you can't
do this.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I didn't even know what my rights were, even
though I'd be living in the States for a long time,
and there are people around me who knew a little
bit more about it, and they said, you know, my
agent actually at the time, was like you should just
go speak to a lawyer. When spoke to the law
who ended up representing me, and I told him the
story and it was a pretty crazy one and it
gets some pretty deep and left there, and I think
(17:27):
my uncle came over and visited and he met with him.
He's an attorney as well, and they asked him, is
he telling the truth because if this is true, like
this is big and this seems like a bit of
a crazy story that a doctor would do this, And
my uncle responded, you may not be the smartest boy.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
But but sure, he's sure is an honest one.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
So yeah, at that point, I think once I found
out the play had basically just been the way that
I can explain it. It's like putting a piece of
rock chicken in a microwave for a minute and feeding
it to someone while they're asleep. It's essentially what he did.
There was no turning back once I once I found
that out, that I had to kind of move forward
(18:09):
to bring light of it and then also to make
sure that this doesn't happen again. Like you know, the
story has got a lot bigger than I thought it
might have. But I think hopefully that it puts in
perspective that you know, if you're a surgeon, you don't
have the autonomy to just do what you want. Your
actions impact your patients. What he took from me, he
(18:29):
can never get back. And I even hit it to
my lawyer. I was like, if they don't want to,
you know, offer any money, or if you win money,
I would happy the exchange it for a time machine,
but unfortunately that's not that's not a possibility.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
How has this changed your relationship with with the Portland
Timas Football Club? And with the club's fans.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I felt, well, the football club, I would say, tweet
me under the rug. I think if you pay attention
to the upper management, or you know the stories of
who is or was at the club at the time,
you would know the kind of people that were managing it.
Those stories you can go and google yourself. I won't
(19:11):
bring those up, so they, yeah, just sweeped under the rug.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Thrown out like trash.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And so that was really really hard to deal with
because I'd moved here when I was nineteen and considered
these people an extension of my family. You know, to
play at the club for nine years is not normal
in the world of football. So yeah, definitely felt not
good about that. I ended up moving to San Francisco
(19:41):
at the beginning of twenty twenty after all the surger
reason recovering and getting that separation I think really really
helped me. But I'm that important now because my films
got a job here doesn't feel the way that it
used to. But I'm going to actually teen my first
Timbers game in April, and it will be the second
game I've gone to since all this. Not the Timbers game,
(20:03):
but any football game with the Timbers Army. So although
I felt like I was thrown out by the club,
the response from the community from all this has been
really positive, so I have to appreciate them for that.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, that's great. It's not getting away from the fact that,
you know, the settlement is big. You know, twenty million
US thirty four and a half million New Zealand dollars.
I know you'd prefer the time machine obviously, but what
does this settlement mean for you?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, I mean there's still a long way to go
in that regard. There's appeals, there's all these things in
legal jargon that I know nothing about, so we still
don't know what will happen over the next six months
to a year. This is the first step, and once
again a very long path. I don't think it's it's
sunk in yet. I'm very tired still. Trial is a
(20:49):
very grueling process and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone.
The more cathartic side of it all has been able
to tell my story. The money is an added bonus
once we figure out what it all looks like, because
I'm not currently sitting with a twenty million.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Dollars US check. If anybody's asking.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
It doesn't work like that, so you know, once it
all said it was and that it was as confirmed.
We've already started conversations with some local groups around here
to highlight this, and I really want to kind of
utilize it also to bring attention to mental health as well,
especially for for athletes. I think it is growing and
I think there is support there, but it's tough to
(21:27):
lose something that you identify with so much, whether it's
taken from you or you have to walk away from it.
So I'd like to do something in that realm, and
then I would like to go somewhere nice with my
fiance and throw my phone in a lock box somewhere
and just kind of take take a week to to
(21:47):
take some deepress and kind of start to put this
all behind us as we as we move forward with
our life.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Last question, have you fallen out of love with football?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's a great question, no, because if you if I
could play one more professional game and walk out, whether
it be with All White game, Timbers game, I would
(22:23):
I would give a lot to do that basically anything.
And the reason I know I haven't is that there
are still mornings I wake up and I forget everything
that's happened, and I actually get up thinking I'm about
to go into training. It's a game that gave me
a lot of opportunity. I owe the game a lot.
There was a period after all this where I had
to walk away from it, and I did, and I
(22:45):
looked at it as a source of anger or anxiety
or stress. But I think slowly, over time, I can't
deny the fact that I love football and that's that's
been in me since I was a kid. So I'm
excited to watch more. I haven't really watched much, and
to slowly get back into it and hopefully it hurts
(23:07):
a little bit less and less over time that I
can no longer do it, and I think one I'm
most excited for us to see the boys in between
twenty six course some upsets in the States. I couldn't
be more excited for the Al Whites and the boys
on the team that I know, and all the young
guns coming through. I mean, they're an impressive bunch, so
(23:27):
I'll be there supporting them for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
As well we all. Jake, I can't thank you enough
for being so open and honest about what you've been through.
I wish more than anything that you didn't have to
go through this and I could find you that time machine.
But now that you have and you're out the other
side and the US justice system has done its job,
I wish you only peace and fulfillment in the years ahead.
(23:54):
Thank you so much again for joining us in such
an authentic way.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
No, I appreciate I appreciate your reaching out, and it's
a story that I think needs to be heard. And
I'll say it again, if anybody needs any help or
is going through anything, reach out to me.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
I'll hopefully you'll have something a little bit more established
stairs we move forward.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
But yeah, like I said, it's a story I needed
to tell to make sure that it didn't happen to
anyone else. So appreciate your time, mate, Appreciate your itching out,
and you'll see what the future holds. But I think
it's a little brighter than the last seven years, which.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Is hopeful, no doubt, no doubt. Thanks Jake. Jake Gleason,
their former All Whites and Portland Timbers goalkeeper with quite
the tail, Quite the story.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live
to News Talk z B weekends from midday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I want to get straight into the show today and
just a warning. Our first segment of the show today
discusses serious themes, including suicide. Former All Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson,
who played eight times for the national side between twenty
eleven and twenty fourteen, has been awarded thirty five million
(00:34):
thirty five point seven million New Zealand dollars and damages
after he brought a medical malpractice lawsuit against an ex
team doctor at Portland Timbers football Club. His career came
to a halt in twenty eighteen after surgery to treat
a stress fracture in his leg went terribly wrong. Both
legs became infected after a plate inserted into his leg
(00:58):
hadn't been properly sterilized. This led to multiple surgeries, serious
medical problems, and eventually the end of his professional career.
Jake Gleason is with us on news Talks. He'd be Jake,
thanks for joining us to tell us the story. Take
us back to twenty eighteen, back to the start and
tell us how this all began.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, it's
kind of funny to think back now. I just remember
having some champagne for quite some while some time back then,
and I'm getting worked done for some shin splints. Went
in for an X ray one day, and yeah, they
told me that I had some stress fractures at only
(01:42):
had a stress structure on one side and in the
beginning of the stress fructure on the other side. So
it's a bit of a bit of a cafe fault
this time. But we went into surgery that next week
with about a two to three month recovery time.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Didn't think too.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Much of it, thinking I was going to be out
on the field and probably that two month time frame
back up training playing doing what I loved. So, yeah,
let's left the training field that day, not knowing that
you know what was to come and that would be
the last day would be training or be a professional footballer.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Really, when did it become apparent after that initial surgery
that something wasn't right.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, So it.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Took a few weeks that the infection shut up, about
just over two weeks I believe, from the initial surgery.
It showed up kind of just as a traditional infiction world.
I was put on some medication in for it to
help subside it, which initially did work. At this point,
I had no idea what had occurred in the first surgery,
(02:44):
so you know, when in there took all the antibiotics
that they gave gave me in at the end of
the course of those oral antibiotics, the infection just kind
of came back with a vengeance. And at that point
the second surgery was needed for them to flush out
you know.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
What that infection would be.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
And this is on my right side, so the play
that got inserted that only went through we can get
into the smaller sterilization process. This has only happened in
my right league. My least league's perfectly fine at this time.
So they do the washout, which has an eighty percent
success rate. If it's just a surface label in fiction,
(03:21):
plus me being a young, healthy individual and being on
the oral and at that point at a pick line
and so a tube then when into near my heart,
so I was pumping an antibiotics summer league, we had
a very good chance if it was the surface label
in fiction to kick it, and it probably would have
set me back about you know, maybe maybe two to
(03:42):
three weeks, So that was the first side of the
infection and the first surgery. After the infection, they decided
to not remove the plate and leave the plate. Then
they didn't inspect the underside of the plate or the
screw holes, which where the infection was actually brewing, because
it came from the initial initial surgery and the breaching
sterilization protocol. And so at that point I was just
(04:05):
injecting every six hours, injecting fluid into this PEP line
and just hoping that in fiction would subside and go away.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But it didn't, and you had multiple surgeries after that,
and what it just kept on getting worse.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yes, I'll kind of go through the story as I've
been in the format that I can tell it best. Obviously, Yeah,
it actually just got worse with the infection. My wound
didn't heal and I had pretty gross stuff coming out
of the wound on my right hand side side. At
this point, my left flip was completely fine, no signs
of fiction was always going well, but my right leg
(04:42):
wasn't getting better with any of the antibiotocs that I
was on, and I was on some really really strong
antibiotics at the time. After about another two weeks, I'm
not sure on the timeline, it's been a few years.
They decided to remove the plate on my right leg
that was the side that barely had the streets stracture.
I think at that point the stret structure had healed,
and so I'd gone from having a barely having a
(05:02):
streets fracture to now having sex massive holes in my
right shin. So they went in there, I pulled out
the plate and then did a washout, and then they
closed up that wound. It was a few days later
I went in on a check up for the plate
remove on my right leg, where my left leg started
to show signs of infection. And so essentially what had
(05:25):
happened is at this point I was pretty sick, so
I was gray, I wasn't eating about like I was
rotting from the inside. And I went in and they
saw the left leg, saw that same redness, same warmth,
same everything that was a sign of infection, and they
pulled that plate out straight away. And essentially what had
(05:45):
happened is because I developed ostin melitis and my right leg,
essentially the infection had traveled through my blood and settled
on the foreign hardware. On my left leg. So if
they had just removed the plate on that first surgery,
or even check the underside of it to know that
that's where the infection was, that at that point we
could have avoided a lot more of the surgery that
(06:07):
I went through. On my one week follow up, I
went to see the same doctor and this was the
same doctor who was caring for me. Who's the main
doctor in this in this in this case, doctor Edelson
looked at my leaft leg and he said, yeah, your
left leg's healing really really well. Everything looks okay. It
looks like, you know, we caught it and there's no
future in fiction. I told him I felt like I
(06:28):
was riding from the inside. And then during that appointment,
I said, my right leg isn't healing and there's actually
past still coming out of it and the wound and
this is two weeks post surgery from that right plate
being removed. I was like, my leaf leg, I'm not
concerned about. It does look pretty good because you got
in there and cleaned it up quickly. The right leg
(06:50):
was just oozing passos and passed whos and pass and
he looked at me and said, it's just bad. Blood flow,
the wound will heal, and you're fine. At that point,
I just lost all confidence. I probably should have a
little bit earlier and called another team doctor called him
and said, I need you look my leg. I think
something's wrong and I feel like I'm rotting from the inside.
(07:10):
I went in to see that other doctor the next day,
and then was rushed in to have three emergency surgeries
in five days to clear what would become oustermulitis and
dead bone. And so they had to go in and
chunk out big parts of my bone. It was dead
tissue in there.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
It was, it was. It was a bad, bad scene.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Once you develop ostroumolitis, it's it's about as bad as
it can get as far as an infection goes. My
body's going Septic've got one hundred and four fahrenheit degree
temperature and I'm cuddling a bag of ice on my couch,
which with all this medicine still coursing through me every week.
So it was after the first surgery of the new
(07:51):
doctor when I found out about what had occurred in
the first surgery.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right, So it wasn't until then that you learned of
the unsterilized plate being put in you in the very
first surgery.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, the doctor had essentially broken national state and his
own practices sterilization guidelines. It's about a six hour process
that you have to go through to sterilizing in an
implantable device which stays in the body, and he put
this through about a twenty minute cycle and then pulled
(08:26):
it out early. He didn't even run the full flash cycle,
which is only meant for instruments because they don't remain
in the human body. At this point, it's I want
to say it to October of twenty eighteen, and I've
lost a punch of weight, got really really sick, still
on the perk line, and I've gone from having the
(08:47):
start of two stress fractures to six massive holes in
my shin and i'stum a largis on my right leag
So yeah, it happened really, really, really quickly, and there's
a few gory details in there that I'll leave out
for this interview, but yeah, it was painful to say
the least.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So, Jake point, are you still hopeful of a return
to play?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, So we kind of threw a hail Mary, which
is a football term.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I don't know if the New zeal't want it to
familiar with it.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It's like a when a quarterback just throws the ball
into the end zone and just hopes that his team
catches it.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So in February of the next.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Year, after my bone had kind of after things had
tittered down, I was off antibiotics, we decided to try
and rod my legs, which means you put two I
think the titanium rods through the middle of your tibia
to make it stabilized. And at that point, if that
had worked, that means that those six holes in my
(09:50):
league didn't really matter because the titanium rod would kind
of keep them stable. I don't know the exact date,
but we did both leagues on the same day, So
I've got two rods put on my legs on the
same day. So needless to say, I wasn't moving too much.
Same kind of thing happened on the right leg. Because
of the amount of damage and ostumo lightis reinfections can occur,
(10:13):
and because of how deteriorated that bone in the area was,
that right rod became infected and it kind of followed
the same path line. At this point, the new doctor
was like, if this rod comes out your career is
over and I knew that, so went in for more surgeries.
Was on placed on another pick line, so it was
injecting more things than to me to try and try
(10:34):
and my best to get my career back because once
that thing came out, those holes take years to fill in.
So I'm not passing a Medical Ireland Bay in Wellington
when they picked me up mate with holes in my.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Leg like that.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So eventually it was in the hospital. Was really sick.
Pickline wasn't working. Perkline got infected as well because it
had been on me for so long. I had a
wound that hadn't closed in three weeks and was oozing
us and textious disease. After walked in the room in
the hospital, looked at me, booked how gray I was
and how much weight I lost and basically said that
(11:11):
rod has to come out and has to come out
today and that was it. That was the end of
any chance of playing football game.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So during this time, how much pain were you in?
How much pain are you are you still in?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So going through the surgeries, there's an ebbed and flow
like because you would have one and then you'd get
back where you could start walking around a little bit,
and then you'd have to go on and get another
one and another one. So it was this constant battle
of getting yourself through it. I would say, I would
like to think that I have a pretty high pain
tolerance as a human being. This was, yeah, unbelievably painful.
(11:51):
I think the physical pain, obviously people could probably understand.
I had just think called a wound back put in
my leg, which is like a tube that goes in
and sucks any infection out of your bone. And so
I would click, and when it clicked, I knew it
was about to start. For about thirteen twenty seconds, it
would suck and it was just like agony. I would
start shaking and I would have to hold onto things.
(12:12):
So that was on my leg for a little while.
But yeah, you're just getting cut open it and butchered
for months on end. The physical pain, it was brutal,
But I'm I'm pretty good at handing physical pain. I
would say, there's constant pain, like I don't I don't
know what it is to not have some form of
throbbing or pain in my legs. It will only get worse.
(12:35):
Order I get I'll have to go see some new specialists.
The way that I explain life right now, it's a
cost It's like a cost analysis.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
If I want to go for a long hike, I can.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Do it, but it's just like as it worth the pain,
whereas before I could do it with no issues, no worries.
I tried snowboarding for all this once my bones are
healed up, you know. This is a couple of years ago,
and got the gear and haven't been back since because
the cost analysis didn't work. It was just too painful,
(13:08):
you know, hobbling around the next day. So that's kind
of where my life is right now. It's shooting nerve
pain on occasions. It gets worse with more activity. Running
is something I can do, but like you said, it
gets worse and worse the more I do it. So
you just have to kind of transition your life and
(13:29):
your health and what you used to do to new
normals that they really take the load of what's going
to really impact you and hurt you. So yes, just
a cost analysis is what I call it. And it's
not fun, especially from going from a professional athlete to
thinking about how much is it going to hurt going
on a five kilometer walk?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And I mean that's the physical side of this. What
about mentally, Jake, how much of a toll has this
taken on you mentally? Can you articulate that?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And I'll do my best not to break down for you, mate,
I haven't. I've put it in a box inside me
for a very long time. So the trial I kind
of let it all out. I was able to tell
my story.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
I think.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yeah, there were points where I did I just didn't
want to live anymore simple as that. The best way
to explain it is. I felt the world would be
a bit of place if I.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Wasn't in it.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I was just a burden on my friends, burden on
my now fiance, who's the most wonderful person in the
world for putting up with me, and we had just
started dating seeing them all this happened, and she was, ah,
you know, picking up my scripts, helping me eat when
I can, making me eat.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
And I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
She was there through it all. So there was a
long time where it was Yeah, very very very dark times.
I'll give you. I'll open up quite quite open here.
And the worst that got was I basically had a
pill job because I've prescribed so many you know, oprio.
(15:17):
It's like pain killers and and anti anxiety and all
these things. So I filled this pill jar up with
enough pills that I know that if I took it
all the once, it would kill me. And I drove
out a few times to different places, all one place,
a couple of places around Portland with that, and I
(15:39):
had that around me for a few months and there
was definitely some some close calls where I thought that
that was going to be the day, but never.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Never did.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It never went through with that, which I'm I'm happy about,
but I'm also you know, you battle with the internal
side of it of leating yourself get that bad. So
it's an interesting space to fall in.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
But it was a very.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It was a very dark time and it's something I
wouldn't wish on wash on anyone. And you know, there
were there were a lot of factors that that kind
of led to that for me to get to that point,
and the last few years, I would just say it's
been a slow climb out of a very very deep,
dark hole.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Our guest is former All Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson. Awarded
thirty five point seven million New Zealand dollars and damages
after he brought a medical malpractice lawsuit against an ex
team doctor at Portland Timbers football Club. So you've told
us about what happened, Jake, how did you then decide
upon the path of legal action?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, when once I found out what had occurred in
the first surgery for me, what he had done in
the corners that he had cut.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
As you know, the New Zealand's not you, you can't
do this.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
And I didn't even know what my rights were, even
though I'd be living in the States for a long time,
and there are people around me who knew a little
bit more about it, and they said, you know, my
agent actually at the time, was like you should just
go speak to a lawyer. When spoke to the law
who ended up representing me, and I told him the
story and it was a pretty crazy one and it
gets some pretty deep and left there, and I think
(17:27):
my uncle came over and visited and he met with him.
He's an attorney as well, and they asked him, is
he telling the truth because if this is true, like
this is big and this seems like a bit of
a crazy story that a doctor would do this, And
my uncle responded, you may not be the smartest boy.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
But but sure, he's sure is an honest one.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
So yeah, at that point, I think once I found
out the play had basically just been the way that
I can explain it. It's like putting a piece of
rock chicken in a microwave for a minute and feeding
it to someone while they're asleep. It's essentially what he did.
There was no turning back once I once I found
that out, that I had to kind of move forward
(18:09):
to bring light of it and then also to make
sure that this doesn't happen again. Like you know, the
story has got a lot bigger than I thought it
might have. But I think hopefully that it puts in
perspective that you know, if you're a surgeon, you don't
have the autonomy to just do what you want. Your
actions impact your patients. What he took from me, he
(18:29):
can never get back. And I even hit it to
my lawyer. I was like, if they don't want to,
you know, offer any money, or if you win money,
I would happy the exchange it for a time machine,
but unfortunately that's not that's not a possibility.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
How has this changed your relationship with with the Portland
Timas Football Club? And with the club's fans.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I felt, well, the football club, I would say, tweet
me under the rug. I think if you pay attention
to the upper management, or you know the stories of
who is or was at the club at the time,
you would know the kind of people that were managing it.
Those stories you can go and google yourself. I won't
(19:11):
bring those up, so they, yeah, just sweeped under the rug.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Thrown out like trash.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And so that was really really hard to deal with
because I'd moved here when I was nineteen and considered
these people an extension of my family. You know, to
play at the club for nine years is not normal
in the world of football. So yeah, definitely felt not
good about that. I ended up moving to San Francisco
(19:41):
at the beginning of twenty twenty after all the surger
reason recovering and getting that separation I think really really
helped me. But I'm that important now because my films
got a job here doesn't feel the way that it
used to. But I'm going to actually teen my first
Timbers game in April, and it will be the second
game I've gone to since all this. Not the Timbers game,
(20:03):
but any football game with the Timbers Army. So although
I felt like I was thrown out by the club,
the response from the community from all this has been
really positive, so I have to appreciate them for that.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, that's great. It's not getting away from the fact that,
you know, the settlement is big. You know, twenty million
US thirty four and a half million New Zealand dollars.
I know you'd prefer the time machine obviously, but what
does this settlement mean for you?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, I mean there's still a long way to go
in that regard. There's appeals, there's all these things in
legal jargon that I know nothing about, so we still
don't know what will happen over the next six months
to a year. This is the first step, and once
again a very long path. I don't think it's it's
sunk in yet. I'm very tired still. Trial is a
(20:49):
very grueling process and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone.
The more cathartic side of it all has been able
to tell my story. The money is an added bonus
once we figure out what it all looks like, because
I'm not currently sitting with a twenty million.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Dollars US check. If anybody's asking.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
It doesn't work like that, so you know, once it
all said it was and that it was as confirmed.
We've already started conversations with some local groups around here
to highlight this, and I really want to kind of
utilize it also to bring attention to mental health as well,
especially for for athletes. I think it is growing and
I think there is support there, but it's tough to
(21:27):
lose something that you identify with so much, whether it's
taken from you or you have to walk away from it.
So I'd like to do something in that realm, and
then I would like to go somewhere nice with my
fiance and throw my phone in a lock box somewhere
and just kind of take take a week to to
(21:47):
take some deepress and kind of start to put this
all behind us as we as we move forward with
our life.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Last question, have you fallen out of love with football?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's a great question, no, because if you if I
could play one more professional game and walk out, whether
it be with All White game, Timbers game, I would
(22:23):
I would give a lot to do that basically anything.
And the reason I know I haven't is that there
are still mornings I wake up and I forget everything
that's happened, and I actually get up thinking I'm about
to go into training. It's a game that gave me
a lot of opportunity. I owe the game a lot.
There was a period after all this where I had
to walk away from it, and I did, and I
(22:45):
looked at it as a source of anger or anxiety
or stress. But I think slowly, over time, I can't
deny the fact that I love football and that's that's
been in me since I was a kid. So I'm
excited to watch more. I haven't really watched much, and
to slowly get back into it and hopefully it hurts
(23:07):
a little bit less and less over time that I
can no longer do it, and I think one I'm
most excited for us to see the boys in between
twenty six course some upsets in the States. I couldn't
be more excited for the Al Whites and the boys
on the team that I know, and all the young
guns coming through. I mean, they're an impressive bunch, so
(23:27):
I'll be there supporting them for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
As well we all. Jake, I can't thank you enough
for being so open and honest about what you've been through.
I wish more than anything that you didn't have to
go through this and I could find you that time machine.
But now that you have and you're out the other
side and the US justice system has done its job,
I wish you only peace and fulfillment in the years ahead.
(23:54):
Thank you so much again for joining us in such
an authentic way.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
No, I appreciate I appreciate your reaching out, and it's
a story that I think needs to be heard. And
I'll say it again, if anybody needs any help or
is going through anything, reach out to me.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
I'll hopefully you'll have something a little bit more established
stairs we move forward.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
But yeah, like I said, it's a story I needed
to tell to make sure that it didn't happen to
anyone else. So appreciate your time, mate, Appreciate your itching out,
and you'll see what the future holds. But I think
it's a little brighter than the last seven years, which.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Is hopeful, no doubt, no doubt. Thanks Jake. Jake Gleason,
their former All Whites and Portland Timbers goalkeeper with quite
the tail, Quite the story.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live
to News Talk z B weekends from midday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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