Jeremiah Jones suffered a broken back Sunday at Unadilla in a second-moto, first-turn crash. His spinal chord was severely injured between the T11 and T12 vertebrae. He has not had any feeling below his waist since Sunday afternoon.

He underwent surgery around 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, but no word has come yet on his condition. For the full story, go to www.atvscene.com.

 

That's terrible. Hope he recovers fully.

 

I hope some good news comes fast.....

 

That's a bad spot to get an injury (as if any spinal cord injury is in a “good spot”). That's going to be a terrible injury to rehab from and from the sounds of it, the injury was of a type that the damage to the spinal cord was sufficiently traumatic that his rehab will just be of the adaptive type unfortunately. If there was any good fortune it seems that the injury was low enough in the spinal column that his arms and upper body should be ok and shouldn't need a respirator or anything. I pray some miracle happens and he recovers fully.

So terribly, terribly sad. Had his whole life ahead of him.

 

I remember watching him in the heuavos (spl) movies, he was a skilled rider. I hope he can recover. I would had to have that happen to me.

 

he did'ent seem like he was in pain he must have a high tolerence

 

From what I've heard from various sources, Jeremiah has sat up in bed and can move his arms, so I'm hoping he doesn't need a ventilator and has control over his body — just not his legs.

The effect this is having on the quad racing community is enormous. Many people have expressed how they are pulling for him, and I hope many more continue to do so.

 

Here's an update I got on another site...
Besides what's posted in the update, I've heard there have been some positive signs in his recovery so far, but only time will tell.

"Shortly after 2AM, this Tuesday Morning, the surgeons completed the nearly six hour long operation on Jeremiah Jones. Unfortunately, his spinal cord was found to be seriously damaged as anticipated, but it hasn’t been announced whether it is damaged or actually severed, which would be the worse case scenario. As of now, the odds are not in favor of Jeremiah ever walking again, but as anyone who has been fortunate enough to know and meet Jeremiah will tell you, he will give it everything in his power to overcome this hurdle.

The surgeons applied a bone graph and screws to Jeremiah’s damaged vertebrate, which has set the stage for the healing process to begin. All we can do now is pray for Jeremiah Jones and his family during this very difficult time, but as Joe Byrd’s Mechanic, Dan Lamey, told me today, “Jeremiah still has the use of his arms, and he can still do almost anything he wants.” Dan should know because he was paralyzed from the chest down in 1983 when he went through a fence at the start of a race on an ATC, and he has since become one of the most respected engine builders in the ATV Industry.

Jeremiah’s Mom, Brenda, has been overwhelmed by all the support that Jones family has received from the ATV community, and the Jones family thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers. "

 

Yeah it's always a really tough call with spinal cord injuries. There is the elapsed time between the time of the injury and the treatment he received between the time of the trauma and the time the cord was repositioned and any bone or twisting etc was removed and the injury was stabilized. If any of the SCI drugs were dumped into him. Then it will be month and months before he knows how much recovery he may or may not get as any healing or rerouting of the cord fibers and nerve roots begin and the scarring starts.

Terribly complex organ the spinal cord and it's associated wiring and unfortunately there isn't a whole lot that can be done to fix it yet once it gets torn up and the body can only do so much. Actually the way the body reacts to damage to the cord it actually wrecks it for some reason.

Guys, I hope this makes us all be a little safer out there while we're riding. You screw around and not pay attention on an ATV (hill climbing and riding double on a single ATV are notorious for injuries like this by the way) and you flip an ATV over on yourself you stand a very good chance of an injury like this. An ATV landing on top of you is a perfect way to end up with permanent spinal cord injury or worse. Out of respect to Mr. Jones I won't get into what all life changes that entails but you won't like it I assure you.

Please. Please be safe guys. I've seen too many guys laying on their back in long term rehab contemplating a life without walking again among other things.

I pray Jeremiah beats the odds.