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Against all odds

Warriors defenseman overcomes life-threatening surgery to get back on the ice for season opener

Mike McMahon
mmcmahon@eagletribune.com
Published: October 10, 2008

NORTH ANDOVER — Pat Bowen had quite a summer.

The Merrimack College defenseman saw his career flash before his eyes in July, when the junior underwent emergency surgery to remove his spleen. Now, just three months later, Bowen is back on the ice and ready to start the season with the rest of the Warriors tomorrow night.

On the night of July 3, Bowen was roughhousing with a buddy when he was tackled, landing awkwardly on his side.

"At first, I thought I just broke a rib," said Bowen, whose father, Robert, is a former Merrimack hockey player. "I drove home (Marshfield, Mass.) because it just didn't feel right. I tried to go to bed, but decided to wake up my dad because I knew that I needed to go to the hospital."

After his doctors told him that his X-rays came back negative for broken ribs, Bowen wasn't sure what the problem was.

"We were just sitting in the room, and all of a sudden, a surgeon came in my room and said that we needed to do surgery right away, and that it was my spleen," he said. "When I fell, I had lacerated it."

Bowen's injury, had it been untreated, could have been life threatening. The spleen is responsible for filtering the body's blood, and fighting infection. If lacerated or ruptured, it could leak blood into the stomach, which could be fatal.

"When I heard spleen, it was scary," said Bowen. "I remembered hearing about people needing to have it removed, and it was always serious."

After waking up from surgery, Bowen spent a week in the hospital before being sent home, where he was bedridden for about a month and a half before he do anything remotely physical.

"That was the hardest part," said Bowen, a 6-footer who is back to his former weight, 190 pounds. "I literally could not do a thing. I was tired all of the time, and just really drained. Obviously, my workouts came to a halt and I wasn't skating, either."

Bowen spent the first part of his summer at Merrimack, taking some classes and working out daily with strength and conditioning coach Mike Kamal. After going through the operation, and losing 15-20 pounds, Bowen leaned on Kamal to get him ready for game action.

"(Kamal) has helped me so much," said Bowen, a second-line defenseman. "Even when I was still at home, I was e-mailing him and he was helping me get on a diet program to help get the weight back. I wasn't cleared for any physical activity until the end of August, right before school, and when I got back I worked out with Coach Kamal again.

"We had to start light, because I literally could not do a sit-up when I got back. So, we started slow, getting me back to some weights and just now I am getting back to what I call normal."

Bowen wasn't sure how long it would be until he was ready for game action, but not even he thought he would be ready this quickly.

"At first, I thought it might be a while," said Bowen. "My dad came to our exhibition game (Saturday against McGill) and when I saw him after the game he told me that it was good to see me out there, because he didn't think I'd be on the ice until Christmas. From Day 1, I was itching to get back on the ice.

"I'm surprised that I've been able to get on the ice so quickly. Right before I came back to school, I was cleared to skate, so I went out once by myself and just skated around and took some shots. It felt weird at first, just taking a slap shot, but that didn't last long. I'm practicing every day now, and am able to play at 100 percent, which I really didn't think was possible this early.

"I thought for sure that I would miss some time. Coach (Mark Dennehy) asked me after practice the other day how I was feeling, and I told him that I feel great. I really have to credit Coach Kamal for getting me up to speed so quickly, I can't say enough about what he has done to get me ready. Once in a while, I still feel gassed, but overall, I feel great."

In comparison to other spleen injuries in athletics, Bowen's recovery is remarkable. Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms missed two NFL seasons due to complications of a ruptured spleen from a hit he suffered in a game in 2006.

"Everything I read was long recoveries," said Bowen. "Sure, it was in the back of my head from the start that I might be out a while. I tried to just not think about it and once I could get out of bed, focus on working out and skating. But in the back of my head, that thought of possibly not playing was always there, especially right after surgery, there was a lot of unknowns for me when I started recovery."

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