From a young age, Torgrim Sommerfeldt set his sights on chasing his sports dream, one that had nothing to do with skiing, bobsledding or speed skating, winter sport staples in his native Drammen, Norway.
The 6-6 Sommerfeldt wanted to follow his two brothers and sister to the United States, soak up the college experience, and play a little college hoops along the way.
“It’s been my dream since I was 10 years old, especially to come to America,” says Sommerfeldt, a sophomore forward at Manhattan College. “I watched my brothers and sister go to the University of Missouri on track and field scholarships. When I was young I got a taste of what college life was like here and it was something I wanted to experience.”
Sommerfeldt didn’t know at the time that for his American dream to come true, he would eventually need to turn to a new and, in some circles, controversial, treatment: stem cells.
In early 2009 Sommerfeldt’s dream seemed to be taking shape. After opening eyes internationally while playing with Norway’s national team and turning some heads with his performance in the 2008 Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Sommerfeldt verbally committed to Wake Forest. A scholarship to an ACC school, two yearly matchups with Duke and North Carolina, playing in arguably the top basketball conference in the nation? Yes, the dream had finally arrived for Sommerfeldt.
Except Sommerfeldt never donned a Wake Forest uniform, never got a chance at showcasing his sweet stroke against Carolina or Coach K. Instead, 2009 was the start of a series of surgeries and medical setbacks that kept Sommerfeldt sidelined for much of the next three years. Six surgeries in all, four on his right knee, two on the left, with bouts of tendinitis and a stress fracture thrown in for good measure.
Wake Forest? It wasn’t waiting around.
“They pulled the scholarship,” Sommerfeldt says. “They moved on.”
Sommerfeldt retreated to Norway, where he took a year off to rest his knees. Only there were more surgeries to come. He suffered from patellar tendinitis in both knees, which prompted procedures to remove parts of the tendon to alleviate the pain.
Still, despite his lack of playing time and mounting surgeries, schools kept tabs on Sommerfeldt.
“Seton Hall and Rutgers had interest, so did Florida International,”
Sommerfeldt says. But former Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen and his former assistant Scott Adubato instead coaxed him to Riverdale with the hope that once his knees were sound, he could provide the kind of scoring punch that had much larger schools tracking him.
But Sommerfeldt’s luck didn’t change. He tore the meniscus in his right knee last summer only to rehab once again, and when he finally appeared ready to start the season for the Jaspers last November, a stress fracture put him back on the sidelines.
“It took a while to come back from the meniscus surgery because of all the previous surgeries,” Sommerfeldt says. “But when I finally did come back I got the stress fracture. It was so frustrating. I can’t really put it into words. I’d finally got into a rhythm and was finally ready to contribute to the team. It was frustrating especially because of such a long period of time without really playing. It was devastating.”
The usual protocol of rehabilitation followed. Again.
“He had exhausted almost every other conservative method we could possibly think of,” says Dr. Anthony Maddalo, Manhattan’s team doctor who doubles as the Rangers’ assistant team physician. “He was bothered by chronic patellar tendinitis in both knees, and he had never really recovered from those operations (in Norway). He was in pain constantly. He couldn’t walk around campus without pain. We tried physical therapy, ultrasound, types of electric stimulation, exercise and stretching but nothing worked.”
With limited options, other than more surgery, Sommerfeldt and Maddalo decided to try something outside the box, a last resort as it were.
They turned to stem cell treatments.
“It really was now or never for me,” Sommerfeldt says. “I don’t think mentally I could sit out another year.”
With that mindset, Maddalo contacted Dr. Steven Victor from Lenox Hill Hospital, who is also CEO of Intellicell BioSciences Inc., in New York City.
Victor’s process amounts to harvesting fat cells from a patient and separating stem cells from the fat. It’s a procedure similar but not exactly like the one former Yankees pitcher Bartolo Colon underwent prior to the 2011 season.
“What we do is take two ounces of fat from people and then we use our special technology, we use sound waves and water, where we actually separate the stem cells from the fat,” Victor says. “Then we return the stem cells to the orthopedic surgeons, in this case Tony Maddalo, and they inject the cells into where the problem is. These cells are actually anti-inflammatory and they increase blood flow and grow new tissue.”
Colon’s procedure included using the addition of enzymes, which is not approved by the FDA and can only be performed outside the country, according to Victor.
Sommerfeldt’s first treatment came in December of 2010, his second one about six weeks later.
Sommerfeldt didn’t notice any changes right away and, due to the meniscus surgery and stress fracture, says it was hard to tell when the pain in his knees started to subside.
But after spending almost the entire 2010-11 school year on crutches, Sommerfeldt finally got into his first college game on Jan. 20 when Manhattan played at Marist.
He played just two minutes, didn’t score, didn’t even take a shot in the Jaspers’ 61-44 victory. But that was OK. The dream was finally taking shape again.
“It was fun but it wasn’t what I hoped it would be,” Sommerfeldt says. “I really wanted to be able to do something out there, but it’s a process and I’ve come to peace with that. I may not be the player I once was, but all I can do is try and get better every day.”
The crutches, his constant companion since arriving at Manhattan, have been retired and Sommerfeldt says every day he is making progress, baby steps toward his goal of being a full-time player, the kind of player an ACC school once wanted as its own.
“It was frustrating to feel the pain with every step you take,” Sommerfeldt says. “But that part is gone now. Now I can be on the court practicing and doing conditioning without the agony. It’s definitely a step forward obviously. A year ago I would never think I’d be at this point. I believe the stem cells helped and I wanted to try it. I wanted to do whatever I needed to do to play again and pursue my dream.”
So why does Dr. Maddalo believe it’s the stem cell treatment that is finally proving to be the answer to Sommerfeldt’s comeback?
“We tried everything and not just for a while,” Maddalo says. “There was a year before he got to us and Wake Forest treated him. Then therapy, exercise, nothing had an effect on him. Then we give him two of these treatments and he turns around and starts to be able to be active. That speaks well for the treatment.”
Doctors Maddalo and Victor think this treatment will become more prevalent in the sports world.
“Stem cell work is still in its infancy,” Maddalo says. “The orthopedic applications are just becoming evident. Everybody read about Bartolo Colon last year and that was one of the orthopedic applications that sort of splashed on the scene and became the buzz of the town and Major League Baseball.”
Now Sommerfeldt hopes to make some buzz himself over his last two years and change at Manhattan.
“Of course it crossed my mind that maybe I simply couldn’t play anymore but I wasn’t ready to give up on my dream,” Sommerfeldt says. “If this works, great. If it doesn’t I’ll walk away knowing I tried everything I could.”
