OMAHA, Neb (KMTV) — On Sunday Governor Jim Pillen piled up a laundry list of injuries after being bucked off a horse, including several broken ribs and a spleen injury.
At first doctors thought that only his spleen injury would need surgical intervention, but after experiencing discomfort and difficulty breathing Pillen and his doctors elected to under surgery to stabilize his ribs.
“He was very thankful we were able to do this. Because he honestly felt he didn’t know what he would experience if we didn’t stabilize his chest and restore normal respiratory function for him,” said Dr. Zachary Bauman, the surgeon who stabilized Pillen’s ribs.
That Christmas Day surgery involved using nine titanium plates to stabilize the Governor’s ribs.
Pillen has been up and walking since his surgery and doctor’s say he has been recovering quickly but his injuries, including his spleen and ribs, are to take several weeks to fully heal.
“I think the most uncomfortable part of his recovery will be the rib fractures,” said Dr. Charity Evans with Nebraska Medicine.
On Monday and again on Friday doctors at Nebraska Medicine described Pillen as a very motivated patient and said he was itching to get out of the hospital and back to work.
Dr. Evans and Bauman said Pillen shouldn’t have any trouble getting around while he recovers but it will be a while before he gets back in the saddle.
“I think he is eager to do that, we will see how things progress and obviously we want him to heal and make a full recovery before he does that again…” said Bauman
