According to a report by ESPN, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze is recovering from surgery he underwent Friday at the University of Virginia Medical Center after a potentially life-threatening strand of staph infection entered his bloodstream and complicated what was already severe pain he was experiencing from a herniated disk in his back.
Freeze has been away from Liberty’s practice since this past Sunday when he was dealing with severe back pain. The report by ESPN states he will remain in the hospital through at least sometime next week while doctors continue to run tests.
“The doctors told me if it had been another 24 hours, that strand of bacteria could have gotten to my heart and that I would have been fighting for my life,” Freeze told ESPN. “It’s the way God works because there’s no doubt that bacteria would have killed me if President Falwell wasn’t so quick to make sure we got the right people involved.”
The decision to transport Freeze to Charlottesville came after President Jerry Falwell, Jr. contacted U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. Falwell sent a Liberty plane to Scottsdale, Arizona to bring in Dr. Dilan Ellegala, a leading neurosurgeon who performed Freeze’s surgery at UVA.
