In an ultimate "football guy" move, Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman wants to have a necklace made with his surgically removed rib, and his mom is willing to clean the flesh off of it if he wants her to.
This comes from a report by David Ubben of The Athletic, who spoke with the newest Fighting Irish quarterback prior to the start of the upcoming college football season. There's a lot to unpack here, so let's start with who Hartman is and how the rib became surgically removed.
Details Surrounding Sam Hartman's Injury
Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
In August 2022, Hartman was diagnosed with Paget-Schroetter syndrome. This made it so that he needed a blood clot removed from his subclavian vein.
"Sam developed a blood clot in the subclavian vein. This condition is known as Paget-Schroetter syndrome, or effort thrombosis," said Dr. Julie A. Freischlag, also the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist CEO. "We suspect this occurred as a result of a previous infection that eventually caused inflammation. After our diagnosis on August 9, we first did a procedure to remove the blood clot. Secondly, we performed surgery to eliminate the pressure on the vein and then dilated the vein."
"On Friday, we did another follow-up ultrasound on Sam, and everything looked great. The clot was gone, the blood flow was good, and he felt great. Blood thinner therapies were discontinued once they became medically unnecessary, and he is medically cleared to return to full competition."
So, now that we're caught up to speed on why he had it removed, we can understand Hartman wanting to hold onto the rib as a memory of something so severe in your life. Immediately after surgery, he asked if he could keep the rib to make a shark tooth-like necklace.
"I should have known he was going to stick with it," she said, "and I would get brought into this whole thing."
So where exactly is the rib?
When Hartman transferred to Notre Dame to do his rib, but not to Notre Dame, it transferred to his parents' fridge.
"The Rib is in my fridge...it's well on its way to becoming a necklace...we're a couple weeks out just want to make sure it stays in one piece til then."
-@sam_hartman10 had a rib surgically removed last year and tells us he's determined to turn it into a piece of jewelry
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) July 13, 2023
Lisa Hartman went to work getting the rib ready, including buying a special bio enzyme laundry detergent to clean the two inches long, one-inch wide rib. Sam told her to be careful because Googling some variations of "how to clean a human rib" might flag something somewhere.
In addition to the detergent, she got a particular peroxide that's stronger than store-bought stuff by 20 to 30 percent. The rib was soaked in both for about 24 hours to prevent rotting.
"It's to get rid of the flesh that was on the rib," Lisa Hartman said. "He means the world to me, so if he wants me to clean the flesh off of his ribs, then that's what I'm gonna do."
Finally, to add some flare to it, she ordered puka shells from Hawaii, but apparently, the final design is still being discussed. In addition to being Sam's mom, Lisa is also a nurse who grew up hunting and fishing, so with that background, what's one little rib?
"I didn't know what I would say to somebody," she said. "I figured people would think I was so weird, but my husband would be like, 'No, some people think it's really cool.' And I thought, 'No, the majority of people will be like, 'You what!?'... But that's what moms do: They want to make their kids happy."
Sam reportedly doesn't want to wear it but rather display it as a memento of sorts.
