Official Post by Eric!

Hello everybody. This is Eric Arnold. First I want to take a moment to offer up my very heartfelt thanks to everybody out there who has been supportive in one way or another. I would not be able to make it as far as I have without the help of some very special people. Some of you are in the racing community and some of you aren’t, but I can’t say enough about what you’ve done for me and will do for me in the future. Thank you so much for everything.

Most of you know me as a pretty reality-based person so let’s talk quickly about where we are today. The current status, and I emphasize the word current, is that I am paralyzed below the waist. I want to put that out there very quickly because I know there’s a lot of conjecture and it’s a very scary thing for people to wonder and have that kind of thing hanging over their head about someone they care about. Accepting the full reality of the situation is the first step in actually being able to address it and start fixing it. So again, the current status is that I am paralyzed from the waist down. I have no movement in my legs at all. So I guess that makes me a paraplegic. That being said, that’s today and we don’t’ know what tomorrow is going to bring. There is a lot of swelling and damage. As the swelling goes down it is like an onion and new layers are revealed. The hope of me and everyone else is that over time and with therapy things improve and I regain some motion if not all. But for my own mental state anyway, I just need to publically acknowledge my current condition so I can keep a straight head on.

Just a quick little list of injuries for those of you who’ve been wondering, cause I know we all have a macabre streak or at least everyone has a natural curiosity: I destroyed three vertebrae, two lumbar and one thoracic, I busted and or dislocated five ribs, I ripped open an 18 inch gash in my sacral artery which is where all the blood came from on the track, and I punctured my right lung. Along with various other bruises and contusions that I know most of the racers at least are very familiar with. The good new s is most of the healing is underway. Other than the paralysis it’s all recoverable from.  There’s a boatload of titanium in my lower back, as usual for this kind of injury, so it’s kind of the standard take me apart and put me back together in a much more orderly way than I came apart. I was in surgery for over 10 hours and ran through nineteen total units of blood between heading to the helicopter on Sunday  and leaving surgery on Monday.

As far as the actual incident, that’s all it is to me in my mind, a pure racing incident. My bike came together with someone else’s bike on the grid, I am not sure who exactly and it doesn’t really matter to me other than I hope that they are okay. I went down on the track and some poor unfortunate soul ran over me, if not more than one. They think maybe two. But any of you who have raced know that your visual in that situation is almost none. My only hope is that in the whole accident I was the worst one injured and everyone else heals up fine and everybody moves on to whatever they feel most comfortable with in their racing career. 

One reason I am writing this is that I am finally being moved out of Critical Care Unit and downgraded to the Intensive Care Unit.  I am awaiting a move to Santa Clara Valley Hospital where they have a special spinal cord unit full of people who do nothing all day but deal with spinal cord injuries and spinal cord therapy. My family and I have all been told that these guys are the best in the business and there’s no place better I could be going so I am very confident about that. The current plan is for me to be there some time Monday, May 11. It’s a very regimented program, as you can imagine these should be, but there will be plenty of time for visiting in the afternoons and evenings. I just don’t know enough yet to tell you more details. Once I get settled in after a couple days and I understand the routine better I’ll post some visiting hours. During the normal daytime I think it will be busy like a job, at least that’s the way I’m looking at it, so give me a couple days to nail down the when and the where for visitations.

One of the reasons for going through this program is its intense focus on making people as functional as possible regardless of the level of mobility they regain. So I will be focused on doing everything I can to being the quality of my life back up as best I can with their help and your help.

My mom and my family have been a great support to me in this time and they have been amazed at the level of support that you all have been giving to both myself and them. On behalf of my mom, brother, and sister I just want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers offered on behalf of me.  I am a very lucky person to have had this happen to me at a time in my life when I am surrounded by so many great people.

I will keep you updated as I can. I don’t have internet access as of yet, but I may have it at the facility in Santa Clara. If not, I‘ll continue to use Shahin, Ethan, and other friends to keep getting as much info to you as possible. Feel free to reply to these posts to let us know if there is any more info that you’d like to get.