ProRodeo Sports News - June 11, 2021

COWBOY RECOVERY

Dan Lesovsky photo

Russell Cardoza, seen here competing in Santa Maria, Calif., in 2019, has undergone two hip replacements.

Despite two hip replacements, roper battling for NFR spot Hip to the hype

BY JOLEE JORDAN, Special to ProRodeo Sports News I t was the Fourth of July 2018, and ProRodeo athletes were driving RAM trucks from rodeo to rodeo during one of the sport’s most lucrative regular-season weeks. The end goal for most — including multi-event talent Russell Cardoza —was a qualification for the National Finals Rodeo. But this particular Fourth of July was proving tough for an unexpected reason. Cardoza had terrible pain in his left hip. “I was team roping, tie-down roping and bulldogging,” Cardoza said. “I quit entering everything but the team roping, but the hip just kept getting worse.” By mid-July, he was limping and found driving and walking excruciatingly painful. Because riding was the only thing that didn’t hurt, and because Cardoza was in a chase for his seventh NFR, he kept roping through the pain. After some searching, the source of the pain was finally revealed through an MRI: avascular necrosis had caused serious deterioration of the

bones in his hip. In fact, the head of the femur had fractured. Avascular necrosis is a condition where the blood supply is cut off to a joint, causing the death of bone tissue which can lead to tiny fractures and the eventual collapse of the bone. While it can be caused by previous fractures or trauma, certain diseases, heavy steroid use or other causes, in about 25% of cases – including Cardoza’s – there is no defining incident or reason that doctors can point to in determining why a person develops this condition. The solution for Cardoza was a full hip replacement, which was done on Nov. 6, 2018. Despite the pain, he’d finished the 2018 ProRodeo season 14th in the all-around PRCA | RAMWorld Standings and 31st in the team roping. The resilient all-around cowboy was back in the saddle in three weeks and roping in just over a month. He even won a big Fourth of July rodeo in

ProRodeo Sports News 6/11/2021

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