"Catalano told authorities she witnessed Galea inject a cocktail mixture containing Nutropin [growth hormone] into the injured knee of 'at least seven athletes' while in the U.S."
Not surprisingly, the details emerging from the Galea charges paint a dreadful picture on many levels.
Mike Fish reporting for ESPN.com:
According to documents obtained by ESPN, Mary Anne Catalano, the former executive assistant, identified 23 athletes during interviews with U.S. and Canadian authorities that she said Galea treated in the U.S. between last July 22 and when she was stopped at the border Sept. 14. Catalano said she frequently accompanied Galea and met with athletes in "hotel rooms and their homes" to provide various medical treatments. Along with paying for the treatment, Catalano said the athletes also paid all travel expenses for herself and the doctor.
I wonder if Tiger asked how much the ticket cost? Just wondering.
So this means the house visits for Tiger were not out of the ordinary? It appears to have been SOP for recipients of the special Galea care. But at least the charges do not suggest that Athlete D in Orlando, presumably Tiger, received the special cocktail:
Catalano told authorities that in his trips to the States, Galea typically performed two procedures on the athletes, both appearing to be an attempt to speed up healing. The first featured a cocktail mixture containing numerous medicines including Nutropin [human growth hormone], which would be injected into an athletes' injured knee. She described the cocktail as also containing Traumeel, Vitamin B-12, Lympomyosot and Procaine.
The other procedure was plasma rich platelet therapy, whereby Galea would take blood from the athlete and separate the plasma from the red blood cells after putting it in a centrifuge. The plasma would then be injected into the injured area on the athlete.
Geoff
Geoff
Dr. Galea wasn't cheap either, according to the AP story on the charges:
During that time, he billed three football players about $200,000, Hochul said.
Reader Comments (9)
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/growth-hormone-deficiency
TMI, but here is a good place to start on GH:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim/139250
It gets even better. Or worse. Lymphomyosot is a homeopathic medicine of uncertain provenance. As is Traumeel. Which means they are basically witch doctor potions, probably available at the local "nutrition center." B-12 is essential for life (we get it from bacteria) and it is practically impossible to be given too much of it. It is not clear how injection into an injury site would have a real effect, but it could work and shouldn't hurt. Procaine is a local anesthetic that frequently accompanies penicillin injections. Heh.
@R. Pryde: PRP Therapy is not a PED, but there is little independent, peer-reviewed, blind-trial evidence that it works as theory says it could work, which is true of perhaps hundreds of medical interventions that are commonly performed.
jb
Your second post--wow--most impressive!! Proud to call you a Shackelfordian