Summer Bird Injured; (12/4) Surgery goes well

[Ray Paulick]

An update has been posted at Paulick Report.

http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/su...-return-to-us/

For those critical of the reporting on this, please understand that there is a language barrier on several levels that created some confusion.

Tim Ice was led to believe by the Japan Racing Association's translator on the scene that it was a small chip, which is the information he conveyed to his owners, who were not at Hanshin. When a couple of other writers spoke with owner Dr. K.K. Jayaraman, he relayed the information he was given at the time, which wasn't quite accurate.

When Tim saw the X rays himself (they were the old fashioned style, not digital, so it took a little time for him to get a look at them), he realized that it was a vertical fracture--not displaced or comminuted--but more of a hairline fracture. That's what I reported. It will require surgery and a screw to help mend the bone, but he said the vet in the U.S. who also had a chance to look at the X rays said the surgery would be quite simple and the prognosis good.

The other writers did nothing wrong and I don't think it's fair to say it's National Enquirer style reporting or journalism in the age of Twitter--as a couple of you did. Anyone who worked on this story was only trying to get the news out to their readers, and I don't think anyone took any shortcuts. The language barrier can be a real problem in Japan, and this was a good example.

There's a lot you can criticize us for, but I don't think this is one of those occasions.