The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FORMER sports executive David ‘Stretch’ Morley has survived a life-threatening injury, but only by having surgery which meant the loss of his lower right leg.

After developing gangrene, Morley was told by doctors that he would have to get his foot cut off. He sought a second opinion in the United States and the terrible news was confirmed that he needed the operation.

“They did their exams and x-rays and they told me that it was spreading and they needed to operate before it got to my knee,” Morley told The Tribune.

“So they had to cut off my leg below my calf because it appeared that I got bitten by something. I had a puncture on the side of my foot. Because I am a diabetic, I didn’t feel it. It just swelled up and I didn’t see it as the poison built up.”

The immediate past president and a vice president of the Bahamas Basketball Federation believes he may have been infected while working in his yard. He checked inside his sneakers, but did not find any insects that may have caused the problem.

“When they looked at my foot, it appeared as if there were two puncture marks on the side,” he said. “I was really shocked because I didn’t know that I was bitten.”

After a five-day stay in the Cleveland Clinic in Florida last month, Morley spent another two and half weeks in the United States undergoing therapy.

“I had to go through the therapy and trying to get ready for the prosthetic foot,” Morley said. “They wanted me to stay over there for another four weeks, but I told them no.

“I told them the same thing that they want me to do over there, going to therapy, I could do that in the Bahamas. I’m going to do my therapy here at home. At least I won’t have to pay all that money that I would if I stayed at home.”

An upbeat Morley, who was greeted at the Grand Bahama Airport on his return home last week, said he will just have to pay more attention to details. But the greatest feat is that he is alive.

“I just have to do therapy for the next four weeks that I’m home,” said Morley, who will begin his first session today in Grand Bahama. “I also have to check on the cut and make sure that there isn’t anything wrong with it.

“I have to do therapy at least three times a week making sure that I don’t get fat. They want me to stay around 250 pounds. When I went away, I was weighing about 265. I can’t get back up to that. I have to stay around 250 or lighter.”

Once he gets his new leg intact, Morley said he will continue to do the things that he was doing before the surgery, including returning to work at BORCO where he is a Learning Accountant or District Controller.

“I intend to go back there at the end of June until they send me home for good,” Morley stated.

In the meantime, he will continue to serve as the treasurer for the Grand Bahama Tennis Association, headed by Natiska Barrett. It’s a role he has held for the past two years since he walked away from basketball, having headed the federation for 15 years and the BOC where he was on board for a term of four years.

“My next goal is to run for a position on the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association,” Morley said. “I think the BLTA board needs some change. I have some ideas, but I don’t want to talk about it right now.”