The ACL Cross Bracing Protocol healed my torn ligament. This is how it works

A year ago today, I was told something I thought was impossible — after three months in a knee brace as part of a research program, my previously fully ruptured anterior cruciate ligament had healed itself naturally. "He pulled the curtain back and said, 'Back in the 70s, we used to put plaster on people and bend their knee and some of them got better, others didn't — we never understood it because MRIs didn't exist,'" Dr Cross says. It took another five patients over the next five years, all with successful healing, before Dr Cross decided to offer the novel bracing protocol to every patient who came to him with an ACL rupture. That "spectrum" is another crucial point both Dr Rooney and Dr Cross want people to understand — just like ACL tears are on a spectrum of severity, there's also a spectrum of healing. The protocol breaks ACL healing results into five categories: Gold medal — full thickness and fully taut, aka you have your old ACL back Silver medal — full thickness but elongated Bronze medal — reduced thickness but taut Off the podium — reduced thickness and elongated No healing at all I was lucky enough to get a "gold medal heal" which Dr Cross also describes as "the time machine patient, there's your ACL back fully healed".