Patient Stories

By all accounts, kicker Colton Boomer had a stellar start to his college football career — an all-Big 12 honorable mention, he played 29 games at the University of Central Florida before transferring to Boise State University as a redshirt junior.

In his three years at UCF, Colton made nearly 72% of the field goals he attempted and nearly 97% of the extra points he kicked.

But in 2023, a weight room injury threatened his dreams of playing in the NFL after college.

“I got injured in the gym,” Colton said. “It was a third-degree sprain on my left ankle, which is my planting ankle.”

That planting ankle is critical to Colton’s ability to kick accurately and with force.

“I couldn’t even put tape on it, because it would mess with my kicking mechanics,” he said.

The injury hurt Colton’s performance on the field and was taking on a toll on the rest of his life, too.

“I acquired so many tools as a football player over my first two years in college, but I wasn’t able to use them to the best of my ability after the injury,” Colton said. “Even doing things like playing golf or going bowling would cause my ankle to swell up.”

So, in the fall of 2024, Colton turned to surgeon Gideon J. Lewis, DPM (Winter Park, FL), a board-certified reconstructive foot and ankle surgeon who specializes in sports medicine, and a lifelong family friend.

“Colton came to me because he had a chronic ankle injury that was not responding to conservative treatment,” Dr. Lewis said. “It was clear he had severe ankle instability.”

Dr. Lewis augmented Colton’s ankle ligament repair using the InternalBrace™ technique, which uses suture tape and bone anchors to overlay and protect the repair during the healing process. This allows earlier weight-bearing and accelerated rehabilitation following surgery, resulting in a faster recovery than traditional repairs.¹^,2 

“The InternalBrace repair acts like a seatbelt, providing extra stability during the healing process,” Dr. Lewis said.

Following a rigorous physical therapy protocol from Dr. Lewis, Colton says he was back in shoes with an ankle brace after just two weeks and he was back to kicking the football within eight weeks.

“I’m back,” Colton said. “My ankle feels so solid, my kicking is amazing, and I am so thankful to be a normal athlete again. I feel like I did my freshman year when I broke all those records.”

Dr. Lewis says results like Colton’s are common in the athletes he treats with the InternalBrace technique.

“The majority of my patients are athletes and this is my first-line treatment for ankle instability,” Dr. Lewis said.

Now, as Colton takes on the role of starting placekicker for Boise State, he has his focus set firmly on the future.

“Anybody and everybody would love to play in the NFL. I’ve got to make one kick at a time to get there,” he said. “But I’m ready and I am proud to have this product supporting my ankle for the rest of my life.”

References:

1. Coetzee JC, Ellington JK, Ronan JA, Stone RM. Functional results of open Broström ankle ligament repair augmented with a suture tape. Foot Ankle Int. 2018;39.107110071774236. doi:10.1177/1071100717742363

2. Kulwin R, Watson TS, Rigby R, Coetzee JC, Vora A. Traditional modified Broström vs suture tape ligament augmentation. 2021;42(5):554-561. Foot Ankle Int. doi:10.1177/1071100720976071

Disclaimers:

The InternalBrace surgical technique is intended only to augment the primary repair/reconstruction by expanding the area of tissue approximation during the healing period and is not intended as a replacement for the native ligament. The InternalBrace technique is for use during soft tissue-to-bone fixation procedures and is not cleared for bone-to-bone fixation.

This is not medical advice and Arthrex recommends that surgeons be trained in the use of a particular product before using it in surgery. A surgeon must always rely on their own professional judgment when deciding whether to use a particular product when treating a particular patient. A surgeon must always refer to the package insert, product label, and/or directions for use before using any Arthrex product. Postoperative management is patient-specific and dependent on the treating professional's assessment. Individual results will vary and not all patients will experience the same postoperative activity level or outcomes. Products may not be available in all markets because product availability is subject to the regulatory or medical practices in individual markets.

This real patient was compensated for the time he took to share his story.