Yes, that’s right: Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman is getting a necklace made out of his own rib bone.
And, honestly, that’s not uncommon at all!
Let’s explain! Last year, Hartman was diagnosed with something called Paget-Schroetter syndrome, described by this site as “effort-induced thrombosis of the axillary and subclavian veins associated with compression of the subclavian vein at the thoracic outlet.”
Due to a blood clot, he needed to have his top rib removed to stop future clots. It sounds a lot like Thorasic Outlet Syndrome and the surgery many MLB pitchers (and NBA guard Markelle Fultz) have undergone.
As for the necklace part? That’s where we can dive into the For The Win archives and tell you that’s fairly common.
Back in 2017, I spoke with Dr. Robert W. Thompson of Washington University, who does hundreds of Thorasic Outlet Syndrome surgeries a year. From that post:
“It gives them a souvenir and a memory. A lot of the patients that have had this have gone through an awful lot of disability and difficulty getting a diagnosis. Then it’s treatment, recovery and rehabilitation. That little souvenir represents a long road that patients have gone through with this condition.”
And he’s seen patients do all kinds of things with that little souvenir: Put it in a shadowbox and made necklaces “to various degrees of bling.” One woman, he remembered, took a while to find a jeweler who would drill holes in a human bone to install diamonds.
One patient sent Thompson his bone back as a thank-you gift … after he fashioned it into a bottle opener.
There you have it.
"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