Patient Stories

For Clemson University senior Isabella Rawl, there has never been any question of where her sights are set following graduation.

“My ultimate goal is to play in the LPGA, which is the highest level of professional golf,” Isabella said. “There are tours below that are considered qualifying school. If you make the cut in all of them, you earn a chance to play in the LPGA.”

She has been training and competing toward that goal since she was old enough to swing a club. As senior captain of the Clemson women’s golf team, Isabella led her team with the lowest stroke average and tied for the third lowest score in Clemson history during the 2024-25 season.

“I was having a great season when I got injured,” Isabella said.

She was tailgating at a football game with her family in the fall of 2024, tossing a football with her then-14-year-old brother Jamison, when it happened. “I have thrown a football my whole life, but I caught one wrong and it jammed my thumb,” Isabella said.

She tried to shake it off, even after it bruised over. Isabella played golf through the pain, but when it wasn’t improving, she finally broke down and went to her athletic trainers for help.

“I knew something was wrong when I started also having pain in my elbow and my wrist,” she said. “It turns out they were overcompensating for the weakness in my thumb.”

An x-ray showed that she had torn the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in her thumb.

“When Isabella came to me, we didn’t need to do any further imaging because her thumb was grossly unstable and clearly needed surgery,” said Timothy Brown, MD (Greenville, SC), a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with additional qualifications in surgery of the hand. “We decided to fix it quickly, so she could return to golf as soon as possible.”

Dr. Brown repaired Isabella’s UCL in January 2025 by performing the InternalBrace™ ligament augmentation procedure and using SwiveLock® anchor technology.

“Dr. Brown told me Drew Brees was back playing an NFL game in six weeks, which meant I would only have to miss three golf events,” Isabella said. “When I heard I could be back that quickly, I said ‘Let’s do it!'”

Within that time frame, Isabella was back putting and chipping. And in a little more than two months, she was competing again — pain-free.

“At six weeks, Dr. Brown told me I had a stable ligament and I was cleared. I bounced back really quickly and qualified for regionals,” she said. “It’s really insane, the speed of recovery with this procedure.”

Dr. Brown says UCL repairs with the InternalBrace procedure have been a game changer for athletes of all levels.

“Prior to having this technology and technique, it would take patients three to six months to be able to return to sport,” he said. “We needed to wait for scar tissue to form over about 12 weeks. Now, the InternalBrace procedure acts like a seatbelt to protect the repair, and athletes recover 40% to 50% faster.”1,2

For Isabella, that quick recovery made all the difference.

“I tell people my story so often. I would do the surgery again in a heartbeat if I needed to,” she said. “I healed so quickly, it was the best decision. And now I’m back and anticipating turning pro at the end of the summer.”

References

1. Allahabadi S, Kwong JW, Pandya NK, Shin SS, Immerman I, Lee NH. Return to play after thumb ulnar collateral ligament injuries managed surgically in athletes-a systematic review. J Hand Surg Glob Online. 2023;5(3):349-357. doi:10.1016/j.jhsg.2023.03.005

2. Gibbs DB, Shin SS. Return to play in athletes after thumb ulnar collateral ligament repair with suture tape augmentation. Orthop J Sports Med. 2020;8(7):2325967120935063. doi:10.1177/2325967120935063

Disclaimers:
This is not medical advice and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by a surgeon or other qualified medical professional on the use of these products. You should talk with your physician or health care provider for more information about your health condition and whether Arthrex products might be appropriate for you. The surgeon who performs any surgical procedure is responsible for determining and using the appropriate techniques for surgical procedures on each individual patient. Arthrex recommends that surgeons be trained on the use of any particular product before using it in surgery. A surgeon must always rely on their own professional medical 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 approvals and medical practices in individual markets. Please contact Arthrex if you have questions about the availability of products in your area.

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 real patient was compensated for the time she took to share her experience.