Florida State quarterback McKenzie Milton's logic-defying recovery an inspiration

"Doc, will I be able to play football again?"

Dr. Bruce Levy, a surgeon specializing in complex knee trauma -- particularly knee dislocation and multiple ligament knee injuries - at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, still remembers the day he met McKenzie Milton just over two years ago.

He remembers how Milton, the star quarterback at UCF who was a few months removed from a devastating knee injury that threatened amputation of his right leg, was already asking about his football future.

He remembers the sadness in the room when he told him and his support group the first day he met them that his goal wasn't getting Milton able to play football again. The goal was getting Milton to be able to walk without pain and, more drastically, keep his leg.

Levy told Milton he would sign off on Milton returning to football activities if he ever recovered to the point where it was a safe possibility. But he never really believed it was possible, recalling the sports analogy he told Milton to put his odds of a future football career in perspective.

"I said to him, 'It's kind of like your rookie at-bat in the major leagues, first time you're ever at the plate, bases are loaded and you hit a grand slam home run. And you do that two more times in the same game,'" Levy told the Democrat.

"That’s what I said to him. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m just trying to give you some perspective of what we’re talking about here."

Milton wasn't taken aback by the prognosis.

He wouldn't have wanted to hear anything other than Levy's honest opinion.

"He just was honest in what he thought, which I respect, that's the way I would want him to tell me," Milton told the Democrat.

"Like if I was getting recruited in football, I wouldn't want a coach to lie to me, tell me you're going to be the starter when you're really going to be the fourth string."

This brutally honest prognosis only added fuel to Milton's already-raging recovery fire.

"It wasn't something that I was trying to hear or accept..." Milton told the Democrat.

"I respected Dr. Levy and what he said, but that was also something that I kind of wanted to prove him wrong."

Time is of the essence

Milton's life changed drastically on Nov. 23, 2018.

That's when the UCF quarterback, a Heisman candidate for the second straight season who had his Knights on an active 23-game winning streak, suffered a severe knee injury during the second quarter of UCF's game against rival USF.

Milton carried the ball on a read option and was taken out by a diving USF defender, whose helmet collided directly with his knee.

Levy didn't meet Milton until weeks later, but he credits UCF orthopedic surgeon Michael Jablonski for instantly realizing that it was far more than just an ACL tear.

"He has to be credited for saving McKenzie's leg because he recognized immediately that this was a severe knee injury, that he did not have a pulse, that he most likely tore the artery in the back of his knee and needed emergency surgery," Levy said.

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"Time is ticking when that happens."

That day, doctors took a segment of the saphenous vein out of his left leg in order to do a bypass graft around his torn artery in his right leg and restore blood flow. If they hadn't diagnosed this so quickly, he would have lost his leg.

In all, Milton suffered a dislocated right knee along with ligament, artery and nerve damage.

It was also Jablonski who connected Milton and Levy after meeting him previously at a knee reconstruction course.

The day after Milton met Levy, he underwent an extensive surgery to better stabilize his leg after the drastic measures that had to be taken the day of the injury to preserve it.

Levy performed a ligament reconstruction, but he also enlisted a few other department heads at the esteemed Mayo Clinic to move the vein graft and evaluate the nerve.

"We had the chair of vascular surgery, Dr. Gustavo Oterich, we had the chair of neurosurgery. Dr. Rob Spinner, and myself," Levy said.

"I basically quarterbacked, if you would, this surgical team, multidisciplinary care team and we did everything."

Milton knows how extreme his case was, how long his odds of recovery were and considers himself lucky Levy took him on as a patient.

"There's not a lot of people that would have taken on my case with the complications," Milton said.

"He put together the best team of doctors possible...I owe him everything."

'An inspiration from the day I met him'

In his 20 years as a surgeon, Levy doesn't believe he's ever had a client quite like Milton.

It was clear from the first day they met that Milton would do everything in his power to get back onto the football field.

"It’s hard for me to put into words how I feel about this young man. I don't think I've ever in over 20 years of practice had any patient with his level of determination, his toughness, his will to get back and play," Levy said.

"I’ve just never experienced it. He's been an inspiration from the day I met him."

Inspiring as Milton may have been, it was still hard for Levy to see him returning to football. Through the extensive research he did, he couldn't find another football player at any level that had returned from the set of injuries Milton sustained.

"There’s one player from a long, long time ago that had a knee dislocation with nerve and vessel injuries and actually after four years of rehab was able to play. But he had a different set of ligament injuries than McKenzie," Levy said.

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"So I'm actually not aware of any college or professional football player that had specifically the ligaments that he tore and the nerve and vessel (damage) and came back to play."

And yet even at Milton's first return visit six months after his procedures at the Mayo Clinic, Levy could tell that he was recovering at a remarkable rate.

"At six months. I was really impressed with his range of motion. His ligaments felt stable. We do what's called stress use where you can sort of compare one leg to the other and see if the bones move abnormally compared to the other side and they were good, they were all stable," Levy said.

"I have a lot of patients that their knees are stable, but they’re super stiff or their knee is unstable, but they have full range of motion. It's very rare to have a knee that stable and have the motion."

At his 18-month visit last August, Levy was again marveled by Milton's continued progress. He cleared him to play on the UCF scout team at that point, clearing him for everything except contact.

"When I went up there in August, it was the first time he told me, 'You're gonna be able to play football again. With everything that you're doing, just keep on the path that you're doing,'" Milton said.

"Hearing those words just kind of lit the fire with a fire under my butt even more to keep working hard, keep progressing to get back on the field. I was able to practice full-go this past year. I still didn't feel I was where I wanted to be to play so I just kept progressing."

After competing on the UCF scout team last fall, he decided to transfer in early December and committed to FSU Dec. 13.

Members of the UCF medical staff, Dr. Jablonski or UCF Director of Sports Medicine Mary Vander Heiden, went with Milton and his family for each visit to Dr. Levy.

This included his visit in late January of this year, despite the fact that he had already been enrolled at FSU for weeks at the time.

"Mary Vander Heiden, she'll be a friend for life, no question. Not just what we went through with my leg, but just her as a person, she really cares about her athletes," Milton said.

"Between her and (head athletic trainer) Jake Pfeil here at FSU, they've been amazing. It's hard to put into words how much Mary and her staff mean to me. Super grateful for them."

It was during that visit in January, his two-year check-up, that Milton was fully cleared to return to football. He was put through an array of tests that measured his strength and jumping ability and passed each of them with flying colors.

About 27 months after suffering an injury that was originally feared may lead to the amputation of his right leg, Levy got to tell Milton that he would allow him to play in a football game that very day if there was one on the schedule.

"It was very emotional. It’s hard for me to get the words out. It was nothing short of incredible," Levy said, discussing the mood in the room when he told Milton he was fully cleared.

"He's just worked so hard and I don't know that a trainer or his mom or him ever thought for sure that I was going to just say you're cleared. But he passed every single milestone that we give athletes to determine if it's safe for them to return to sport. It wasn't like close, it was like normal. He scored 100% on his test comparing his injured knee to his non-injured knee...

"There are some things about his recovery that almost defy logic. I mean, you just have to believe in God when you see his recovery."

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Milton never stopped believing he would get to this moment, but hearing the words put all he had gone through into perspective.

"Just hearing those words, it's what I expected, but once you get there, you kind of take a look back on it's about the journey, not the destination," Milton said.

"The journey ended up leading me here to Florida State, which I never would have thought after I got hurt. I'm just really grateful for everything that's aligned to get to this moment. I feel like this all happened for a reason."

Friends for life

During his August 2020 visit when Milton was cleared to play on the UCF scout team, he posted a picture on his Instagram. The picture was of him and Dr. Levy fist-bumping surrounded by Milton's mom, Vander Heiden and Levy's wife and children.

The caption reads, "Sometimes unfortunate circumstances can cause you to cross paths with some extremely special people. Dr. Levy, I can’t begin to thank you, your beautiful family, & medical team enough for taking on my case and all its complications.

"As great of a surgeon you are, you happen to be an even better person. A God fearing man who understands that healing can’t happen just by surgery and rehab alone but divine intervention is needed! Doc...I wouldn’t be this far along without you and just from the bottom of my heart thank you, thank you, a million times God bless you and thank you!"

It's a thank you recognition that Levy says brought tears to his eyes and is the most heartfelt he can remember from one of his patients.

The pair agree that though they met through dire circumstances, their lives are both enriched for knowing each other.

"We kept in touch and grew a relationship and I don't think that's necessarily normal for a patient and a doctor to do," Milton said.

"But to me, I could just tell he was a special person from the moment I met him...I'll be friends for life with that guy."

Last March, Milton left Dr. Levy a voicemail making sure that he and his family were doing well and sending his thoughts and prayers as the medical community was rocked by the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Milton had previously given Levy's children UCF gear, but he made sure to send them some updated FSU gear after he committed to the Seminoles.

"Going over 20 years of surgery, I’ve taken care of thousands and thousands of patients and the privilege I feel to have been able to be involved in his care is indescribable. He’s an amazing kid..." Levy said.

"That’s how everybody feels when they’re around McKenzie Milton. It's just an honor to be involved in his life in whatever way it is. He’s just one of those extremely rare, unique individuals."

Many months ago, long before Milton was fully cleared, Levy promised that he would be at Milton's first football game back if he ever reached that stage. It was a promise Levy even then didn't really believe he would have to follow through on.

While Milton hasn't yet been named the starter, he enters FSU's spring practice as the expected front-runner for the job.

If it plays out as expected, Levy couldn't be more excited to make the trip to Tallahassee when FSU opens its season against Notre Dame Sept. 5.

Note: Dr. Levy got permission from the Mayo Clinic, McKenzie Milton and FSU to talk to the Democrat for this story.

Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton's logic-defying recovery an inspiration