How did Sterling get out of the infield care center?

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pettyfan4life

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If nascar gives a good xray to every driver why was sterling cleared to race that day and relesed with a broken vertibrate? Am I the only one that noticed this? What about jr and hsi wreck?
 
Nascar needs to do some investigating in to this don't you think? Imagin if Sterling got back on the track adn got in another wreck, That could of killed him.
 
Depending on the angle and quality of the x-ray and the ability of the doctor reading it, it could have been missed. If there is swelling in the area, that also complicates things. High neck injuries are better seen by CT scan. The question I would ask, is why wasn't he sent for a scan right away. Waiting a few days could have caused complications.
 
You know nascar will have some excuse or tell Strerling to say he tripped over his dog and fell down the stairs(Greese joke nfl) and broke his neck
 
The injury occurred at Kansas but apparantly the infield care center was not equipped with the appropriate diagnostic tools and the full extent was not discovered until today.
Thank God it wasn't worse!
Nascar rules would allow Sterling in the car to start a race and get out after 1 lap with the substitute driver's points going to the person who started the race. Ganassi doesn't want to risk further injury, so won't put Marlin back in the car this year.
 
I also thought that it was wierd when I saw Sterling just walk away from his car in no pain. Can someone explain how a person cannot tell that they have broken a vertabrae in their neck?
 
Depending on the place and angle of the break, surrounding muscle and connective tissue can hold things in place. In the case of a racer, they have a lot of upper body strength and muscle, this helps. The other factor is the adrenaline rush. At first a person my not realize they are injured. After they calm down, and the system returns to normal, aches and pains will emerge. Hope this helps.
 
Originally posted by Awesome_Bill
I also thought that it was wierd when I saw Sterling just walk away from his car in no pain.  Can someone explain how a person cannot tell that they have broken a vertabrae in their neck?
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Awesome, believe me that whiplash type injuries without a fracture are VERY painful- pulled or stretched muscles and pinched nerves hurt like hell and could even disguise any fracture pain. I'm still recovering from a non'fracture injury to my neck that happened in June.
 
Originally posted by Awesome_Bill
I also thought that it was wierd when I saw Sterling just walk away from his car in no pain.  Can someone explain how a person cannot tell that they have broken a vertabrae in their neck?
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We are talking about Sterling here he is a dummy (daytona)
 
I was starting to wonder on nascarwomans carrer too lol:D
 
I can attest to what nascarwoman is saying. I was in a car accident and my back injury didn't show up when I was taken to the hospital right after the wreck. It was a couple of days later that the injury was found. As far as Sterling walking away on his own.... I would imagine that simply racing a car will give you a big adrenaline rush, top that with a hard hit in the wall.... I can see how he could walk away from it without feeling it at first.
 
At least they found the injury before he tried racing again. I am not surprised Kansas did not find the injury. Whenever you work with neck injuries you always need a couple scans and not just x-ray before you get your result. I'm just curious as to how he will not need surgery.
 
Lots of good info in here.

My $.02.

First I don't think most infield centers are equipped for X-Ray. Seems that most of the time if the care center personell determine that this type of diagnostic is required the driver is usually taken to a local hospital .

Sterling was interviewed after the Kansas crash and I don't recall that he had any specific complaint which would have led the infield care center to believe that a neck injury was present. Several in this thread have indicated that this is not unusual.

The story as released raises some questions in my mind as to the origin of the injury and the extent. I am not fully convinced that this injury was fully incurred at Kansas, it may well have been but I have doubts. The could race and have surgery vs no racing and no surgery statements only confuse me. With the decision not to race I believe that there may more to this than we have heard. We may never know more than we do now, which is fine, we really don't have a need to know more details. But the whole scenario reads just a click off to me.

Lastly, just a big old "DEM" I hate to see this. One of the reasons I find myself never wishing any competitor into the wall (or involved in any type of crash) no matter who happens to be my favorite of the moment. This might always be the outcome and for a racer to lose his bid for a win or a title in this manner adds nothing to my enjoyment of the sport.
 
Originally posted by TexasRaceLady
Gollum, nascarwoman is an RN.
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That makes sence . thought she sounded pretty knolageble about the medical field.
 
What I find interesting is that when the interviewed Sterling after he was released from the infield care center, he said "I think that that wreck took away some of the soreness from the Richmond incident". I am wondering if it loosened up some of the muscles that were tight/sore and he wasn't concentrating on any new "pain" of that accident. nascarwoman is correct in saying that you can't always find injuries just by x-ray. CT/MRI's are the most conclusive way of finding this type of injury. And just remember, this is a fracture and not a break. There is a difference between the two.
 
According to the article published in the USAtoday when Sterlin' got the call, he was weed whacking! So his level of pain tolerance after driving for decades is undoubtedly high.

He is quoted as saying if he hadn't answered the phone he would still be driving.

Professional athletes play hurt. Fact of life. If you don't, you get replaced and sometimes the replacement keeps the job. Just ask Tom Brady.
 
Originally posted by Gollum
:D nascarwoman are you in the Med. field. Just wandering.
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Gollum, I've been an operating room nurse for 27 years. I specialize in doing kidney and neuro (brain etc) surgery. looked at alot of CT, MRI and x-rays in my time.:)
 
Dr. Jerry Punch said on RPM2nite that it was a "non-displaced fracture of the C2 vertebra".

He also said that another hit could have paralyzed or killed Sterling.
 
Its a good thing his car was too messed up for him to race
 
"Lastly, just a big old "DEM" I hate to see this. One of the reasons I find myself never wishing any competitor into the wall (or involved in any type of crash) no matter who happens to be my favorite of the moment. This might always be the outcome and for a racer to lose his bid for a win or a title in this manner adds nothing to my enjoyment of the sport."

I never wish anyone to wreck, but I sure was hoping against hope that Sam Hornish would run outta gas at the last race in TX! Hoping someone will run outta gas is about as bad as I get when it comes to wishing something to happen so my driver can win.
 
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