Bill Sullivan provided this update... April 1, 2007 at 4:52 PM

I just got the following update from Mary Sellers this afternoon on Billy's condition and what he has ahead of him.

His lumbar spine is fractured in three places, he fractured the L 5 and L4 vertebres. He also broke the prevous graft that was done a couple years back, detroying the fusion of the titanium rods, etc.

He does have a shattered bone fragment logged in his spinal canal that will not be removed at this time because of the risk involved. He DOES have feeling in his legs at this time, there appears to be some nerve damage to the inside of one leg that will continue to be evaluated and its unkown if that is temporary or will be resolved once surgery takes place.

The torque tube pushed the bottom of the seat up approximately two inches, crushing it into his lower back. She added that the doctors have commented that the new seat he recently purchased that has the built in feature like a hans enclosure likely saved his life.

He does have a concussion, he has a lot of pain in his shoulder but all the tests show there is no breakage, just a lot of bruising that is likely from the belt's tension on the impact.

Other information, they are having some concern that his blood is not coagulating as it should be and his potassium and chloride levels have dropped considerably. They are monitoring this and he is being fed Vitamin A with an IV to accelerate the clotting.

Surgery will be required, it will be 3-4 hours long and a date or time has not been determined yet, it will likely be within the week and he will remain at the Sutter Roseville trauma center until that takes place.

His spirits are pretty good. Apparently, he remembers racing but nothing after the crash at all, he actually commented that the lifeflight ride was pretty "rough".

As far as finances, the insurance coverage at this time has not been confirmed as far as the limitations, co-pays, etc.

We will be setting up a trust fund in the morning that will likely be at Bank Of America in Sacramento and I will provide that information once we set it up. As most of you know he recently started his own wing business and was working at that full time and has a great deal of concern regarding the future of that. There are a lot of offers for help with his business, so surely the racing community will do what it can.

I'll update when I know anything else, this Saturday we will have a fundraiser at Placerville in the form of a helmet pass as well as any drivers that wish to contribute winnings for the evening to the trust fund to assist with medical expenses, etc. I'll work out the details of this in the coming days.


Bill Sullivan
John Padjen Motorsports