Athletes hospitalized with rare condition: Docs sound off on what went wrong
Key Takeaways
At least nine lacrosse players at Tufts University were hospitalized after a workout led by a Navy SEAL.
The players were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis, a rare but serious condition that can cause complications like kidney failure.
Experts say that appropriate precautions are crucial to avoid rhabdomyolysis.
Nine members of the Tufts University lacrosse team were hospitalized following a 45-minute workout with a Navy SEAL last month.[]
The players were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis, a serious condition that can occur when damaged muscles release proteins and electrolytes into the blood.
Docs give there take
“Rhabdomyolysis is relatively uncommon in the collegiate athlete population. However, there are cases that pop up every few years, and that traditionally revolves around a couple of common situations. [The] first is new athletes who just return to campus from a summer off, and they go into really hard workouts without having been prepared or acclimatized to that specific situation. For rhabdo [rhabdomyolysis], that’s a pretty common scenario,” Calvin Hwang, MD, Team Physician of Stanford Athletics and Clinical Assistant Professor or Orthopaedic Surgery at Stanford University, tells MDLinx.
“Here, it sounds like these may have been athletes [who] have already started training, but they then had a new training regimen that was much more intense than what they were previously acclimatized to. And so that's another common situation—where you have somewhat trained athletes, but then they have a much more intense workout than what they have previously been used to. And that's another risk factor for developing rhabdomyolysis.”
The New York Times reports that about 50 players participated in the voluntary and supervised workout. The university has since launched an investigation into what happened and how it may be prevented in the future.[]
Rhabdomyolysis is a serious condition that can occur due to damage to the muscles. This can include overuse, accidents, heat, or other causes.[]
Also called rhabdo, the condition happens when the damaged tissue in the muscles releases electrolytes and proteins into the blood. This can lead to organ damage and other dangerous complications like seizures, kidney damage or failure, arrhythmias, permanent disability, and even death.
Symptoms can include muscle cramps, aches, or pains that are more severe than expected; feelings of weakness or tiredness, including being unable to finish a task or workout that was previously possible; and urine the color of tea or cola.
Ali Jamehdor, DO, an emergency medicine physician and the medical director of the Weingart Foundation Emergency Department at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, says it is crucial that physicians don’t dismiss symptoms as just a rough workout.
“The number one thing is to really take what the patient tells you seriously and don't ignore it. People can look fine. They can sit there; they're tolerating a certain amount of pain. They tell you that their muscles are super painful, to the point that they haven't had before. Trying to stand up is extremely difficult, taking steps is extremely difficult, they feel malaise, they feel weak. They've been drinking water, but they still feel like this, and so taking it seriously and listening to the patient is very important, because it's very easy to just blow somebody off saying, ‘Oh, well, you had a rough workout,’” Dr. Jamehdor says.
Joshua Scott, MD, Chief Medical Director for the Los Angeles Galaxy, Medical Consultant for US Soccer and USA Track and Field, and a primary care sports medicine physician at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute, in Los Angeles, says that the condition is rare and, in many cases, does not lead to major complications.
“The good news is that rhabdo is fairly rare. Only about 26,000 cases occur each year in the United States, and less than half of those are from exercise. Even if you develop rhabdomyolysis, less than half the time will you develop kidney failure, which is the major complication,” he tells MDLinx.
“Unless you have been in a car accident with severe muscle trauma or are trying for the push-up world record, people shouldn't worry about rhabdomyolysis. The average workout usually produces muscle soreness, but not to the extent to cause rhabdo. Sports medicine physicians usually see this illness at the beginning of a sports season when unconditioned muscles do too much. Athletes or ‘weekend warriors’ doing extreme workouts can cause the breakdown of muscle to be so severe that rhabdo occurs. When the usual post-workout muscle soreness becomes severe or prolonged, muscle weakness becomes evident or any changes in the urine occur, seek medical attention immediately.”
The Tufts workout was led by a Navy SEAL who had recently graduated from the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training program. The program is known for its grueling and high-intensity activities. Following the death of a BUD/S participant in 2022, a 2023 report found that the program placed candidates at “significant risk.”[]
Dr. Hwang says that it’s not unusual for college athletes to participate in a workout led by an outside provider like a Navy SEAL, but he says that appropriate safeguards need to be in place in order to protect participants.
“It's not uncommon in the college setting to bring in someone like a Navy SEAL to put a team through a particular workout,” Dr. Hwang says.
“I think the key is that, ahead of time, your strength conditioning or coaching staff have already discussed what that workout is going to entail with the outside consultant and ensure[d] that it's appropriate and fits where the athletes are in their current training cycle, and [made] sure that [it’s] appropriate for what their bodies can handle at the time,” Dr. Hwang adds.
What this means for you
Nine members of the Tufts lacrosse team were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis following a 45-minute workout led by a Navy SEAL. Rhabdo is a rare but potentially serious condition that occurs when damaged muscles release proteins and electrolytes into the blood. Experts say that it is crucial for physicians to listen to patient concerns about symptoms and to not dismiss potential rhabdo cases as just a “hard workout.”