Local High School Athlete Returns to Competitive Swimming
Cameron Ogden felt the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his knee pop and the two bones collide. He was playing flag football and wearing cleats on field turf. At the time, he was running directly forward but his foot caught in the turf and the rest of his body kept going.
For the high school swimmer, a junior who had just begun practicing year-round in the hopes of landing a college scholarship as a senior, suffering the serious injury was terrible timing as the high school swimming season was about to begin.
"It was not fun," said Ogden, 17, of the brutal injury.
Thankfully, Ogden made his way to Dr. C. Michael Morris at Resurgens' Lawrenceville office who specializes in sports injuries of the knee and has had significant experience working with young athletes.
Ogden said Dr. Morris was able to return other patients to the pool in as quickly as five weeks. Ogden, a student at Collins High in Lawrenceville, underwent a patellar tendon graft ACL reconstruction on Oct. 28, 2014 and, true to Morris' reputation, was back in the pool by early December.
With the 2015 Gwinnett County Swim Championships scheduled for Jan. 22 - 24, Ogden didn't have much time to get back into shape. During rehab, he bonded with his Resurgens physical therapist Satya Karamchandani, MPT. Ogden credits Karamchandani for helping him to progress through his rehab. He went to sessions twice a week and when he was at home did exercises to strengthen his quadriceps muscle.
"She put a lot of effort into getting me back and everything," Ogden said of Karamchandani. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate her effort because I must annoy her at timesâ¦the rehab routine was kind of tough to do. Sometimes I really didn't feel like doing it but I had to if I wanted to get back as quick as possible."
Ogden said Dr. Morris was able to return other patients to the pool in as quickly as five weeks.
In January, Ogden received permission from Dr. Morris to do a slow breaststroke kick. With much dedication and hard work, he was able to progressively regain his various swimming kicks.
When Ogden first suffered the injury, his mother, Cecile Ogden, did not expect that he would be able to swim at the county meet. He had only competed for a few weeks prior to the meet but still successfully participated and even managed to qualify for the Georgia High School Association Class AAAAAA state meet in backstroke and freestyle.
Perhaps Ogden's biggest achievement came between the county meet and the state meet. His coach, Jennifer Weaver, asked if he would be willing to swim in a time trial, verified by another school's coach, so that he could qualify to also compete in the 100-yard breaststroke at the state meet. To qualify, he would need to swim a time of 1 minute 7 seconds.
Ogden shattered the mark, swimming a time of 1:04.4. After qualifying, he excitedly thanked Dr. Morris and Karamchandani in an email.
"I swam in a breaststroke time-trial for first time since I tore my ACL," he wrote. "And surprisingly as sore as I was, I swam a 1:04.4 and qualified for state! I can't describe how amazing it felt to finally get back to my breaststroke. And it's all thanks to the support from both you and Dr. Morris!"
Fast-forward to the state meet in February, Ogden placed 22nd overall in the 100 breaststroke. He is hopeful that in 2016, with a full year of strengthening behind him, he will improve and that college coaches will come calling.