Injury puts an end to 2015 season

It's been 5 weeks since I crashed at Brands Hatch. The crash it self was small, but through no fault of his own, another rider ran over my back resulting in two fractured vertebrae, a grade 4 lacerated liver, and some damage to my right lung. The marshalls and medical staff at the track were amazing in taking care of me and I was airlifted to St Georges Hospital in London. I was taken quite good care of there also, especially in the ICU ward for 2 days.

When I was discharged from hospital I was given no direction as to what I needed to do from then on out. The doctors informed me I was stable and that my fractures and liver were looking ok, that I could start moving around and trying to get some movement back, slowly, over time. Within 3 and a half weeks I was back doing some gentle cycling and stretches. I had magnetic field therapy and laser therapy to help with the fractures, but I had taken no action with my liver, as I hadn't been directed too, so I felt it would heal over time. Physically I have been feeling really good. I'm certainly not 100% but I feel like I could get back on a bike and feel reasonably comfortable. The chief medical officer from the British Superbikes who I have been keeping in contact with, was quite upset that I had received no direction from St Georges as to what I should do after my accident, so we were unsure of when I could make a return to racing. She took it upon her self to show my results from my scans to two separate liver specialists to hear their thoughts. What they found was that the laceration was very close to a main artery and also another part of my liver, which acts to stop bleeding if something ever happens to it. They said that if it had cut 1mm further either side that I could have bled to death before the ambulance made it to me, in around a minute and a half. Even once the laceration heals and becomes scar tissue, there is still a lot of danger, that some stretching movements could open the laceration back up, and being so close to those areas of my liver, could cause serious bleeding again. This was disturbing to the specialists and to myself, that the doctors at St Georges had never informed me of the severity of my liver damage. I had been pushing to get back to normal and working through a lot of pain to try and get everything moving as much as possible.

Unfortunately because of the severity of the damage done to my liver, the medical staff have ruled me out for the remainder of the British Superbike Championship. This is because the scar tissue needs time to heal and we cant risk it tearing again. I'm devastated that I cannot continue the championship, as we were running 2nd up until the crash at Brands Hatch. But it seems that the accident could have been a lot worse, so I've got to consider my self lucky that I am at this stage of the recovery I am at already. I have to get my self fit and ready and I have to listen to what the medical staff are saying. I will continue to work hard to come back next season, faster and smarter than this year. I have full intentions to race in the UK next season and hope that my self and CPE Motosport can continue our relationship together to finish what we are unable to this year.

I will be in contact with my sponsors individually soon, but I wanted to give everyone an update as to what is happening now. I cant thank everyone enough for the support they have given me in this tough time, but throughout the whole race season. I feel like I'd really stepped it up this year and we had some amazing races. My team are a huge credit to that, I feel we have worked really well and managed to progress together to bring home some solid rides.

For now I will work on getting my physical fitness back up and continue working on all other aspects of my riding, other than actually riding the bike. I hope to continue the relationship with my sponsors for next season and I hope my results from this year will allow me to build relationships with new sponsors also.

Cheers

 

Levi Day