Health.com reports on the injuries of gymnast Samantha Cerio, which includes two broken legs and dislocated knees.

Sabrina M. Strickland, MD, sports medicine surgeon at HSS (who has not treated Cerio) discussed the recovery process from an injury of this scale who notes immediately after an accident such as this one, doctors would be looking out for any injury to the patient’s arteries. Dr. Strickland explained, "The most important thing is this can cause a vascular injury. [The] artery in her knee—that's the most important thing with this type of injury."

The first operation a patient might have after an accident of this caliber would be one that stabilized the patient's legs, stated Dr. Strickland, in which a trauma surgeon would do surgery on the bones to temporarily fix them in place. "Usually they'll put something that's outside the bones that holds the bones and the joint in place until they can do [more] surgery, to hold it in place temporarily while the swelling goes down," added Dr. Strickland. "The next thing would be to actually fix the bone," often with a surgery called an open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) surgery within the next few days.

Cerio probably won’t be able to stand for approximately six weeks, according to Dr. Strickland. In the meantime, doctors might have her use a continuous passive motion machine.

Dr. Strickland concluded that after an injury like this, an athlete's chances of returning to gymnastics would be questionable.

Read the full article at Health.com.