Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128379
By CHICANERY HENNY RAY ABRAMS The Urgent Need for Urgent Care ason Pridmore lifted his shirt. An ugly scar ran from below his navel almost to his sternum. There was a row of buttonholes on both sides of the red line and beneath the skin were once 28 surgical staples. Jason Pridmore should have died. The incision was made by doctors who removed Pridmore's spleen and saved his life. A crash during Superstock qualifying at Barber Motorsports Park sent Pridmore to the track medical center. The diagnosis was internal bruising. Two attending physicians were ready to release him. One nurse agreed, another didn't. And neither did Mark Gallardo and Lincoln James, two of the essential members of Pridmore's Star Motorcycle School. Gallardo and James know their boss. They've seen him suffer. They know he has an abnormally high threshold of pain. They know when he's hurt. They knew he wasn't ready to go home. They insisted he be taken to the University Hospital in Birmingham. Had they not intervened, Pridmore would likely have bled to death of internal injuries. He awoke in the Intensive Care Unit with a plastic tube down his throat. "I didn't really know how serious it was until I came out of surgery and was on a ventilator," he said. "When you're conscious and you're on one of those, it's a little gnarly." Three weeks later, Pridmore can talk about it dispassionately. The passion is reserved for the need to guarantee that it never happens again. "I worry about these kids who thought they might have had internal bleeding," Pridmore said in the Jordan pits at Infineon Raceway. "We really need to get some medical people at the track that are used to dealing with athletes who are used to understanding what we deal with." Everyone I spoke to agreed that the series should have a dedicated set of physicians working out of a traveling medical center. In AMA Motocross and Supercross, it's the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit. Since AMA Pro Racing is the custodian of the sport, it's imperative that they take the lead in establishing a complimentary unit for road racing. It would go a long way to dispelling some of the anger that AMA PR generates on an almost weekly basis. This week's fiasco is the technical bulletin mandating engine case covers that reads as if it was written by someone in a remedial English-as-a-second-Ianguage course. (See "In the Wind"). Tom Carson, dinector of motorsports of the Asterisk knee brace company, Dr. John Bodnar, and physical therapist Eddie Casillas brought the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit to Infineon Raceway. The race fell during a rare weekend off: Last weekend was the Las Vegas Supercross, next weekend is the first outdoor national at Hangtown. The rig is at 31 motocross and supercross races a year. At Infineon, it was a one-off appearance, but it shouldn't be. "We need to get something like that at the races for all the guys," Pridmore said. "It's something we're going to start pushing for." Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin agrees. "Racing's a dangerous business," he said. "It doesn't matter which way you look at it, but it's the risk we're Willing to take to do what we do because we love it. To have a track medical center and staff on hand that knows us and knows our background and everything, I think will be a huge step towards the safety of the riders, for sure. I also think on the overall cost basis, if the manufacturers got involved, it's really not that expensive. Personally, I don't think whatever it costs would be that expensive for the well-being of the factory riders, let alone the other riders that all the manufacturers are looking at." As much as anyone else, American Honda team manager Chuck Miller knows the value of the Asterisk unit. "This sport deserves it, these racers deserve it," Miller, whose MX/SX riders have benefited from the unit's care, said. "I can't believe that a professional racing organization would allow it in one area and not another. It's time to bring it into road racing. It costs money, but Ithink the manufacturers and sponsors, everybody would pitch in to try to make it work, for sure. "One of the biggest problems with us at the racetrack [is], a rider falls and he injures his elbow or his shoulder or the worst-case scenario, he has a head injury. A lot of time, as a racer, you don't want to say, 'No, I can't race.' But these guys are trained experts, and that's the need. So for us, it's a safety net also that we can go to and ask questions and rely on their expertise to say whether a rider is still eligible to ride or not." Spend an hour in the road race paddock and you'll discover that AMA Pro Racing isn't doing enough for rider safety. The complaints continue like a bad replay of "Groundhog Day." The horrific injuries suffered by Vincent Haskovec in a singlebike accident at Infineon Raceway reminded all of the need to remain vigilant. And Infineon Raceway is the most pro-active, rider-friendly track on the AMA calendar. They've poured tens of millions into track and safety improvements. A proposal to make former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz the riders' safety rep was shot down by the Pro Racing Board. Conversely, they're significant contributors to the Asterisk Mobile Medical Unit. Asterisk's Carson was at Infineon because he wanted to "show everybody what we're able to accomplish in motocross, see if there's any interest in this sport." Everyone I spoke to, from team managers to riders, agreed that there was more than just interest. There was urgency. The Asterisk unit is more than a medical center. Dr. Bodnar or Dr. Steve Augustine, with whom he alternates races, are the primary care physicians for not only the riders, but many in the racing community. They transport medical records for every rider they've treated. Because the staff knows their medical history, and what kind of injuries to expect, they can be more effective. Everyone in the unit is a multitasker. "We have no staff," Dr. Bodner said. And 100 percent of the money that's donated goes back to the program. The start-up costs for a new unit could run to $1 million. A trailer could cost anywhere from $300,000 to $800,000, and the equipment would be about $75,000. The X-ray machine alone costs $40,000. And then there are the running costs. The current trailer was paid for by Asterisk. The AMA helps pay the driver. The manufacturers and riders donated money for the equipment, the trainer, and the nurse. Clear Channel pays for fuel. The Women's Motocross/Supercross Foundation pays for supplies. Given the millions of dollars the manufacturers pour into racing, a few hundred thousand each is a pittance. And the savings are enormous. Even a simple injury can run into the thousands of dollars at a hospital. The staff at the Asterisk unit can diagnose and treat the injury onsite, then follow up at the next event. Or recommend a course of therapy. And the rider doesn't have to leave the track or be treated dismissively by jaded ER physicians who too often denigrate our sport. "If we could have a team of physicians and therapiSts at the track," Pridmore said, "that would be very beneficial. I think it's time that we start considering taking care of the guys that are at the track. In my case, I had two orthopedic surgeons who were at the track. Twice they looked at it and said it was internal bruising. Had two nurses, only one looking at me like with any seriousness." As soon as Pridmore was taken off the EKG machine, his blood pressure dropped. "Once my body shut down, it could have been too late then." It's a lesson that doesn't need to be repeated. eN CYCLE NEWS • MAY 25,2005 99