Brian Vickers
It was a curious and worrisome day for many fans of NACSAR driver Brian Vickers when Casey Mears first stepped into Brian’s Red Bull ride. The worry became any number of mental maladies when Brian officially announced stepping out of his Red Bull ride due to blood clots. Brian put on one hell of a brave face when he made that announcement because a blood clot is a scary proposition.
Despite the incredible physical conditioning that most race drivers have to be in to be competitive in the cockpit, things can still go wrong with their health.
For Brian Vickers it wasn’t anything obvious like a back collision with a wall that made him cross-eyed for a week. It was a subtle and insidious little thing called a blood clot.
Thrombi (blood clots) are a leading cause of death and disability in the U.S.. They’re the cause behind many terrible conditions, such as stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, and complications of cancer. Hell, even the treatment drug for dealing with blood clots can cause serious bleeding or even death. Up to 90 percent of acute pulmonary embolism cases are from blood clots and pulmonary embolism is the contributor or cause of death in up to 12 percent of patients who die in the hospital.
Those who develop sudden symptoms of pulmonary embolism that aren’t treated properly have a death rate of 30%. Those who get proper treatment, the death rate is only at 3%. Still too high as far as I’m concerned.
So for the most part, despite Brian’s humor about he’s Ok to race, he just can’t crash… was a massive redirect from the true concerns. As far as I’m concerned, let’s keep Brian Vickers in our thoughts so he can git his ass back in that car!
Kapeesh!?
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