Treating drivers requires “highly customized medicine… a special application of general trauma knowledge,” says Dr. George Rodman, Methodist’s ER chief. Because of the higher speeds, helmets and safety harnesses, race-car drivers suffer more neck, spine, leg and foot injuries than normal accident victims. The sport’s top surgeon, Dr. Terry Trammell, operated on Priestley (who broke his back and feet) for six hours last Wednesday. “Jason has been telling me ever since he’s been driving race cars, ‘God forbid I should ever need a doctor, but if I do, Terry Trammell is the guy’,” Jason’s father, Lorne Priestley, told NEWSWEEK. Priestley, who credits EMTs at the track with saving his son’s life, says Jason will spend up to four weeks in Methodist’s rehab unit. Will he race again? “That’s a discussion we’ll have to have in another six or seven weeks,” his father says.
