Santiago’s story: Coming back stronger

It was the gold medal match. It took a minute for Santiago, ranked first in the world in jiu-jitsu for his age in two categories, to realize what had happened.

His dad, Joel, saw him go down, but Santiago popped right back up and kept fighting. When the referee realized Santiago was bleeding, he stopped the match.

“It wasn’t until after the adrenaline started to wear off that my jaw started to hurt and I realized something wasn’t right,” says 15-year-old Santiago. “I didn’t realize how serious it was, but the pain got worse and I was pretty scared.”

At the Pediatric Emergency Room (ER) at Children's Health℠ Plano, he and his family learned his jaw was broken in two places.

A complex surgery to repair his jawbone

Soon, they were meeting with Paymon Sanati-Mehrizy, M.D., Plastic and Craniofacial Surgeon at Children’s Health and Assistant Professor at UT Southwestern. Dr. Sanati explained that Santiago had broken his mandible, the lower jawbone. This type of fracture requires a complex repair because the mandible has a lot of jobs.

“The mandible needs to be able to move to talk and chew and it needs to be able to sustain the force of biting,” Dr. Sanati says. “And for kids and teens, we need to make sure the repair does not prevent future growth.”

The family discussed surgery and what recovery would look like: Eating a “no chew” diet (eating soft foods or cutting foods into tiny pieces that don’t need to be chewed). And taking a break from jiu-jitsu.

“I knew I was in good hands and trusted Dr. Sanati and the team to take care of me,” Santiago says. “It was hard to hear that I wouldn’t be able to train or compete for a while because jiu-jitsu is such a huge part of my life. But I also knew that if I wanted to come back strong, I had to listen to my doctors and let myself heal.”

Dr. Sanati also told Santiago that letting his jaw heal didn’t mean he couldn’t train at all. He recommended full rest at first, then slowly adding cardio and weight training.

Getting better, slowly but surely

The weeks following surgery weren’t easy. It was tough to go from training 35 hours a week to total rest – and a diet of mostly yogurt and mashed potatoes.

“As a parent, a little bit of fear sets in because we were so used to seeing our son be active and all of a sudden, he was just down,” Joel says. “But we trusted Dr. Sanati who walked us through everything that was going to happen.”

It didn’t take long for Santiago to get back to the gym where he could help coach his brother, Preslee, and cheer on his teammates while he recovered.

“It was hard to be patient,” Joel says. “We went down a few rabbit holes of why isn’t the swelling going down? Why isn’t it getting better? even though his healing went according to Dr. Sanati’s timeline, almost down to the minute.”

A few weeks after the injury, Dr. Sanati cleared Santiago to train for European Nationals.

A tournament that meant a lot

Santiago was a little nervous when he first got back on the mat to train.

“Once I started moving and getting into the flow, everything felt natural, like I was right back where I left off,” Santiago says.

He and his brother traveled all the way to Dublin, Ireland for the European National tournament.

“Both boys weighed in, and then we ate a lot,” Joel says. “And seeing Santiago back to competing at that level just made my heart smile.”

Santiago and Preslee both took home silver medals. As a fierce competitor, Santiago had hoped for gold. But that silver felt special in its own way.

“It meant a lot to me because of everything it took just to get back to competing,” he says. “A few months earlier, I couldn’t even train. Then I was standing on the podium at one of the biggest tournaments in the world. It showed me that the injury didn’t have to stop me from doing what I love. It made me want to work even harder.”

Getting knocked down and coming back stronger

Santiago brought his silver medal with him to his next checkup, which felt like its own win for Dr. Sanati.

“To me, it showed that we didn’t just fix his jaw, but we did it in a way that didn’t disrupt the most important thing in his life,” Dr. Sanati says.

Dr. Sanati also told Santiago that he’d likely need new Invisalign after the surgery because his bite may not line up the same, but the surgery was so precise that his old Invisalign fit perfectly.

Now Santiago is back to training 35 hours per week. He still coaches his brother and younger kids too. He wants to take jiu-jitsu as far as he can — which might mean studying sports science, becoming a jiu-jitsu professor, winning a world championship or all of the above.

“This experience taught me not to take anything for granted. It made me realize how lucky I am to be able to compete,” Santiago says. “Breaking my jaw was probably one of the hardest things I’ve gone through, but it made me stronger. Now I know that even when something knocks you down, you can work your way back.”

Learn more

The Children’s Health Fogelson Plastic Surgery and Craniofacial Center is home to a team of experts across craniofacial conditions, from traumatic injuries, to care for cleft lip and palate and rare genetic syndromes. Our providers work together to help kids, teens and young adults heal and thrive. Learn more.