Last year was supposed to go differently for Dodgers pitcher Dustin May.
Out since the middle of 2023 following a flexor tendon and Tommy John revision surgery, the hard-throwing right-hander was on track to return to action before the end of the season.
By early July he was just a week away from a minor-league rehab stint, and a mere month or so from potentially rejoining the roster.
Even more encouraging was that as May neared the end of his recovery from his second major surgery (May had Tommy John in 2021), he finally was feeling like his old self, hopeful of returning to the shorthanded starting rotation and playing a key late-season role in the Dodgers’ push for a World Series title.
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“I was pretty close,” May said.
Then, over the course of one frightening evening, everything changed.
On the night of July 10, while he still was rehabbing at the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch facility in Arizona, May went to dinner and ordered a salad. After one bite, he felt lettuce stuck in his throat. Trying to wash it down, he took a quick swig of water.
Moments later he could tell something was wrong.
In what May described as a “complete freak accident,” he unknowingly suffered a serious tear in his esophagus — one that required emergency surgery that night, dashed any hopes of him returning before the end of the season and left him with a new perspective on not only baseball but also the fragility of life.
“It was definitely a life-altering event,” May said Friday, recounting the ordeal for the first time publicly. “It was definitely very serious. It’s not a very common surgery. It was definitely an emergency.”
So much so, he added, “I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night if I didn’t have it.”
For 15 minutes, May said, he felt a “mega-painful” sensation in his throat and stomach; he later learned the lettuce lodged in his throat led to a highly uncommon food impaction that perforated his esophagus tube. When the pain wore off, however, May returned home from dinner thinking he would be OK.
“I’m not a big panicker,” he said. “It kind of chilled out. So I was like, ‘I’m fine. I…