Help Injured Racer Aaron Clark

[EJones04]

I Just thought I would Tell you guys and gals about my Dynotune buddy Aaron Clarke. Aaron is an MRA and UtahSBA racer and champion. Aaron Clark had a bad crash at PPIR on Friday October 10th while practicing for the upcoming final round of the MRA race season. We here in Colorado like him because he is a hell of a good dynotuner and a very nice guy. People come to see him to fix their maps after they pay $300 at dealers. Super Dave knows him so that says something as well.

Aaron Clark is a racer, a champion, and friend to anybody who rides a motorcycle. Generous to a fault.

He was in a coma for 8 days, and for a while I was worried he was not going to awake. I was really worried!

A little about him:
New Zealander Aaron Clark won numerous club and regional Motocross and Supercross Championships in and around his homeland. When Aaron made the transition to roadracing in 1998, he was equally successful. In 1999, he received the Wildcard entry in the FIM Australian Grand Prix and went on to finish third in the Australian 250 GP Roadracing Championship. He came to America in 2000 and won the Aprilia Cup National Championship. In 2001 Aaron received a sponsored ride from Aprilia USA in Unlimited Superbike FUSA. Since then Aaron has been involved with numerous race teams.

Aaron currently holds the #1 plate in both the Masters of the Mountain Series (Utah) and Motorcycle Roadracing Association (Colorado). In 2008 Aaron defended his #1 plate in Utah, while competing in both Superbike and Superstock in the MRA and MoM series.
He is a great guy! and I wish him a speedy recovery.


Here are a few pictures of him when My friend and I were getting tuned up.
And here is where you can get a tune when he gets well!
http://www.moto-garage.com/

[EJones04]

Here is an update.
apparently it is far worse than anyone thought. the jokes about him cat calling the nurses and pulling out his feeding tube are apparently not funny and not a sign of recovery.

Scott and I would like to bring Aaron’s full condition to light and clarify a few things. In addition to his physical injuries, Aaron has suffered a traumatic brain injury. He is functioning at a cognitive level of 4, which means he is confused, agitated, Level IV - Confused/Agitated

Patient is in a heightened state of activity with severely decreased ability to process information. He is detached from the present and responds primarily to his own internal confusion. Behavior is frequently bizarre and non-purposeful relative to his immediate environment. He may cry out or scream out of proportion to stimuli even after removal, show aggressive behavior, attempt to remove restraints or tubes, or crawl out of bed in a purposeful manner. He does not, however, discriminate among persons or objects and is unable to cooperate directly with treatment efforts. Verbalization is frequently incoherent and/or inappropriate to the environment. Confabulation may be present; he may be euphoric or hostile. Thus, gross attention to environment is very short and selective attention is often nonexistent.

Even though Aaron’s physical healing seems to be progressing, his cognitive skills have a long way to go. It still remains unknown if his brain injury will result in long-term, permanent cognitive impairment. Aaron has experienced memory loss and currently does not have the ability to retain new information for a significant amount of time.

We will continue the ‘no-visitors’ policy until further notice. Since Aaron doesn’t recognizing all the well-meaning visitors & friends, the situation just adds to his stress level and creates undue external stimuli (against doctors’ orders). We apologize for any misleading information you may have read or heard about Aaron. We wanted to get a better grasp on the situation before announcing this on the website.

Aaron failed several swallow tests and still has the feeding tube. The staff has also tried to cap the trach tube and remove the vent, but he was unable to properly breath through his throat and mouth. Thus the trach remains to assist him in breathing. Speech therapy started on Friday, with a concentration on oral exercises, since Aaron cannot speak at this time. He started OT and PT a few days ago, with the majority of the rehab focused on regaining balance, strengthening his core and neck muscles, along with a few arm exercises.

Thank you for all the wonderful thoughts, calls, emails, text messages, and donations. It has been extremely reassuring to have such a great support group assisting us during this rough time. We are thankful and astounded at the outpouring of concern for us, the Clarks, and Aaron. We cannot begin to verbalize how we are feeling, just know that Scott and I would like to convey our most sincere gratitude to all of you.

I would also like to say thanks to the entire Clark family for flying to the US to assist in Aaron’s recovery.

[rjk]

Sorry to hear of this Eric. I hope he can recover.

[EJones04]

Thanks Bob, It really sucks.

[Rockstarzero]

It is strange that the story about a couple of hippys getting stabbed in a lawless 3rd world dump is a big deal but one of us gets in a motorcycle crash and somehow no one cares. proly cuz hez a local dude here.

I hope he recovers soon.

[bikerboy]

best wishes from ex racer ,fingers crossed for a return to full fitness.

[EJones04]

Originally Posted by Rockstarzero

It is strange that the story about a couple of hippys getting stabbed in a lawless 3rd world dump is a big deal but one of us gets in a motorcycle crash and somehow no one cares. proly cuz hez a local dude here.

I hope he recovers soon.

This is just not a racers forum. There are links to threads started on just about every other supersport bike forum on the net. Plenty of people are reading about it... just not posting... Which is fine. I like the people here better anyway . PLUS It makes me feel better just having this thread knowing people at the very least thought about it.

His generosity and tolerance for my ignorance made a big impression on me.

[Joe S.]

Originally Posted by Rockstarzero

It is strange that the story about a couple of hippys getting stabbed in a lawless 3rd world dump is a big deal but one of us gets in a motorcycle crash and somehow no one cares. proly cuz hez a local dude here.

I hope he recovers soon.

It doesn't help that its in this particular forum, if it was in Rave On it would get more action. Not sure how many people actually look on this section with any regularity.

[WWiddy]

Just read the posts - damn shame to have a good man injured so badly. I wish him and his entourage the best.

[EJones04]

Clarkie has been making some Neurological progress. On Saturday, Speech Therapy provided him with a new learning tool - the alphabet board (letters on a board that he can point at) - allowing him the opportunity to communicate better. Aaron is able to recognize letters and their function and spell words.

While visiting Aaron on Sunday, he made hand motions indicating he wanted to go for a walk. With Scott not understanding exactly what his hand gesture’s meant, Aaron spelled out “go-for-walk” on the board.

While still suffering from significant memory loss, Aaron is able to retain small pieces of information from repetitive reinforcement. Aaron knows his own name and how to spell it. He knows my name and correct spelling, but doesn’t know Scott’s name. Aaron is aware that he is in a hospital due to a motorcycle crash, but doesn’t remember the crash. He can recall Scott’s upcoming Macau GP trip, which may be recovered memory or new information that he has retained - we are unsure of which.

Mid afternoon on Sunday, Aaron’s trach was capped. He tried to speak a few words which were low volume, garbled, and a bit incomprehensible. We are very excited to see him trying to speak, as the throat muscles weaken over time without use. The staff still uncaps the trach at night and puts him back on the vent, allowing him to sleep more peacefully.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their support and concern for us. We are truly amazed by this.

Thank you - Scott and Tedi

[Torchwood]

Originally Posted by Joe S.

It doesn't help that its in this particular forum, if it was in Rave On it would get more action. Not sure how many people actually look on this section with any regularity.

I saw the word ...Help! and instinctively clicked on it! Double wammy for me, reading this news. My support to Aaron, and his family n friends! And i just received not good news. I hope he bounces back on his feet soon, sounds like a real cool dude, its always the bloody good ones... Maybe with a few more posts the Admin Boffs will move the thread?

Please keep us posted, this thread is now in my CP subscription...

[EJones04]

Thanks Torchwood, Here are some updates. they are Quotes from his Wife and Brother.

Friday : 11.07.08
Aaron was the best I’ve seen him thus far. He could remember names and context. Plus he was able to retain information from previous days. I even noticed his personality coming through. We were able to hold very short conversations (via the alphabet board). I explained the crash a bit more to him and he was visibly upset. His right arm and right leg took the brunt of the impact, with the iliac bone shattering. The iliac bone is the upper and largest part of the bony pelvic girdle. He also broke his right collarbone. Aaron is experiencing numbness and heaviness in his right leg and arm. He uses his left arm to lift the right into position and rarely moves his left leg.

Saturday : 11.08.08
Aaron’s mental status had diminished from Friday. He was rather agitated and confused and spouted disconnected comments. He was less able to concentrate and converse. I also noticed the staff put his mitts back on - leading me to believe he was trying to pull out tubes again. The agitated and confused stage, Rancho Level 4, varies with each patient. The treatment guidelines for this stage are basically just low stimulation to best manage and limit agitation until the patient progresses to the next level on the Rancho Scale. Thus no TV, no radio, dimming of the lights, and family visits are limited to 10-15 minutes each.

Sunday : 11.09.08
Again, Aaron’s mental status was diminished. He wasn’t remembering or retaining much. I also noticed he was quite angry. Aaron had the gastric stomach tube insertion procedure around noon and was very upset about it. I realized he didn’t remember that we had discussed it an hour prior, plus the night before. He spent the remainder of the day in a bit of pain. The nurse has to wean him off of the Fentanyl, because he was in a bit of respiratory distress and they needed him to cough on his own - but was unable to due to the sedation. Quite a few hours later, they were able to administer another dose of Fentanyl and he was off to sleep. Fentanyl is one of the most powerful opioid analgesics with a potency approximately 81 times that of morphine.

[rjk]

Wow, sorry to hear the latest developments Eric. Makes our "problems" seem so insignificant when hearing about this. A good time to reflect....

[Torchwood]

Dam, thats not so good! But thank you for the update! Well its better then if he was not moving at all! I guess there are going to be good days and bad days!!


Yes it does make you reflect!

[EJones04]

Originally Posted by rjk

Wow, sorry to hear the latest developments Eric. Makes our "problems" seem so insignificant when hearing about this. A good time to reflect....

It has affected me the same way. This, to happen to such a good person. For lack of a better way to put it... It has tested my Faith as the phrase goes.

I had a chance to speak with someone who is closer to Aaron and he described the accident this way..

Apparently he went into a tank slapper on a bad part of PPIR (pikes peak international raceway) lost his brakes as a consequence of the slapper and hit a non impact absorbing wall at full speed. I am guessing 100+ mph into concrete to cause that much damage but I don't know for sure.

On the bright side there are stories of people with equal or worse brain trauma making almost full recoveries. Ie drive a car, hold a job, maintain a circle of friends. All things we(or at least I) take for granted.