Published: April 21, 2016 - A1
Avoiding the hazards
Teen golfer back on the course after his lung collapsed — twice
Daily News
KEWASKUM — Golf coach Glenn Eichstedt describes senior Sean Murray as a “good-natured young man.”
“He’s got a very unique sense of humor, always joking around,” Eichstedt said. “He keeps things loose.”
That didn’t change even after Murray had surgery to repair a collapsed lung.
That’s right: a collapsed right lung.
At his first checkup after the nearly hour-long surgery in December,
Murray looked at his doctor and asked when he could play golf again.
His doctors were amazed he made it as far as he did.
The fiasco started while watching his classmates compete in a
wrestling match on a Thursday evening in December. He noticed pain in
his chest and back, but thought nothing of it.
“It wasn’t bad enough to stop me from helping my cousin,” Murray said.
Two days later, Murray attended his cousin’s wedding and acted like nothing was wrong. But the pain continued.
“The main symptom was chest and back pain, and almost a whooping cough
to match it,” Murray said. “I just put it in the back of my mind.”
The following Monday, he went to the doctor. There was a problem — a small hole in his lung.
It was like trying to blow up a
plastic bag, but with a hole in it. The lung wouldn’t inflate. The
doctor was stunned, amazed Murray was sitting there in his office and
not dead.
“It was not taking in air,” Murray said. “I was going off one lung.
“I toughed it out,” he added. “I spent a whole weekend with one lung.”
Hours later, he was admitted to Froedtert and the Medical College in Wauwatosa.
“At that point, after the weekend, it was getting to a point that could cause some more problems,” Murray said.
Four days after being admitted to Froedtert, Murray had a 45-minute
surgery to repair the lung. Of course, golf didn’t stray far from his
mind.
“I watched a lot of Golf Channel on TV,” Murray said.
There was no rehabilitation program. It was just rest, avoiding large movements and heavy lifting ... including golf clubs.
A month later, it seemed he was in the clear. Think again.
Three months later while on a run with a friend, those same pains
resurfaced. This time, there was no hesitation. There was no “toughing
it out.”
“We were on top of it,” Murray said.
He was immediately taken to the hospital.
Suddenly, the energetic, good-spirited young man was frustrated and down.
“It wasn’t on the same scale, about a 50 percent collapse,” Murray
said. “It was kind of like, ‘We did all this, I didn’t get healthy, what
is there left to do?’” It rattled those close to Murray. It was hard
to imagine someone who loves to sing in the team van on the way to golf
meets had to go through this, let alone twice in three months.
“(It was) more shocking and disturbing than the first time because you
know there’s a serious problem and it needs to be addressed in a
serious way,” Eichstedt said.
The doctors didn’t take any chances. Murray’s second surgery lasted about three hours.
“They opened me up and checked everything,” Murray said.
Just like before, he wondered when he could golf again. Golf was important to him, as was being there for his teammates.
Murray is in his fourth season on the Indians’ varsity golf team.
He’s never missed a varsity match. In 2014, his sophomore year, Murray
was selected as the team’s most valuable player. Last year, he had the
lowest scoring average.
With an experienced lineup set to take to the course this season, Murray and the Indians were excited about their potential.
Then this happened ... again. If anything, it was a motivator for his teammates.
“They were concerned — his health was the No. 1 concern,” Eichstedt
said. “I didn’t sense any worry or letdown on their part. Let’s go out
and do this and show we can do it.”
Murray again waited for the OK from his doctors. He got it much sooner
than he and everyone else thought he would: April 6, less than a month
after the surgery.
“My parents and I were shocked by that,” Murray said. “With the extent of the surgery, they were letting me go that early.”
Then another eye-opener happened five days later: He was going to have to golf.
The thought was to ease Murray back into the mix. Certainly by the
start of May, he’d be in full swing. Unfortunately, three players
expected to compete in the Indians’ first conference match April 11 were
scratched. Murray got a text message from his coach, asking him how he
felt.
“The first thing
I did was I called my dad,” Murray said. “He said if I’m comfortable
doing it, go ahead. I wasn’t quite nervous, I was curious. It was the
first time I hit a golf ball in five weeks.”
Expectations were low: just get through the ninehole meet, the first
ECC mini-meet in history. No one expected what happened next.
His score of 42 at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, a course
he’s never played, put Kewaskum over the top to win the inaugural ECC
meet.
“I was surprised he played as well as he did,” Eichstedt.
A 42 is only two or three strokes above his typical play.
“It went good,” he said. “I got through the fourth or fifth hole and started getting knots in the back.”
A golfer is usually their own harshest critic. He was no exception, even with a twice-repaired lung.
“Definitely left a lot out there,” Murray said.
Overall, however, who cares?
“It was great,” Murray said. “Just being on a course was nice.”
Still going strong, Murray doesn’t appear to have lost much with his
game and that bodes well for Kewaskum as it chases an ECC championship
and a deep postseason run.
Reach sports editor Nicholas Dettmann at ndettmann@conleynet.com.
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