2 senior rowers are back on the water after overcoming injuries in Detroit

Pamela Osborne, Anchor/Reporter

Brandon Carr, Digital Content Producer

DETROIT – Two elite senior rowers with the Detroit Boat Club share their stories on how rotator cuff surgery allowed them to get back on the water doing what they love.

“I was in college thinking this might be cool for a semester or a year,” said 68-year-old Michael Thibault, who has been rowing ever since.

Friend and fellow rower Dennis Wojdyla, tore both rotator cuffs at different times. He even suffered a second tear in one shoulder which required a second surgery to repair it.

“When they have injures, our job is to put it back together and get them back on track,” said Dr. Henry Goitz, an orthopedic surgeon with Detroit Medical Center and rowing enthusiast himself.

In describing the men in their injuries, he said the part of the shoulder that holds everything together was torn in a way where they couldn’t move without pain and experienced a loss of function.

Small scopes the size of a pen can now be used to do the procedure.

Thibault stuck to his rehab regime and says the payoffs are incredible.

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