Former Champ Car champion Paul Tracy, 38, sustained a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae when he crashed during practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Saturday: "I went head on into the wall and then the car jumped up in the air and then slammed back on the ground. I could tell something was wrong right away."When I think broken back, I think career-ending injury. Apparently not.
Tracy, who ran a part-time Busch Series schedule last season, returned to the track--albeit doped up--and gave interviews after his emergency trip to the hospital! After doling out the standard "I'm disappointed for the team" BS, Tracy said he'll begin planning for his return next week:
"Now I'm just going to go home and rest for a couple of days and then, early next week, we'll start figuring out the best recovery options so I can get back in the car as soon as possible. I feel OK right now after all the medication that the doctors gave me, but I'm just sore and stiff and I just need some rest."Ya think? How does one repair a broken back anyhow?
Tough break. He's currently third in the standings.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-15-2007 @ 12:02AM
Sky said...
Dr. Mark Kabins, Las Vegas Neurosurgey, Orthopedics and Rehab....He's the best of the best and I wouldn't be back at work on my airplane without him! 3 surgeries, including 3 level spinal fusion, in 34 months, all from my airplane accident...since Tracy is a fellow Las Vegan, I thought he might want to know....;););)
If I can go through what I did and get back to work....a wimpy little compression fracture is nuttin'....;););)
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4-15-2007 @ 10:03AM
4ever3 said...
A friend of mine is an acrobat pilot and on his way home from an airshow performance in Michigan his plane experienced a catastrophic mechanical failure and he was forced to crash-land in an uneven field. He broke 3 vertibra in his back, but otherwise walked away unscathed. At around the same time I broke my ankle badly in a soccer match. I had to wear a cast for 5 months and he was walking properly before I even had my cast off. My friend was back to riding his hard-tail Harley 8 months later while I had to stop playing sports of all kinds, including jogging, for over a year. To this day my ankle still bothers me and it has been 7 years. Paul Tracey will be back very soon, mark my words!
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