Eric Bostrom Has Near Death Experience

Henny Ray Abrams | September 26, 2010

LEEDS, AL, SEPT 26 – Eric Bostrom is lucky to be alive. The Cycle World Yoshimura Suzuki Attack Racing rider came within less than an inch of possibly bleeding to death after his right thigh was ripped open by his footpeg shard during a crash on the final lap of the Saturday American SuperBike race at Barber Motorsports Park.Bostrom was hit by Jordan Suzuki’s Brett McCormick, while the pair were fighting for fifth place, with both going down. Though he isn’t entirely certain what happened, Eric believes that the footpeg broke off and what was left sliced through his leathers and his skin, coming within two centimeters of his femoral artery and nerve. Had the artery been severed, Bostrom may have bled to death, according to his brother Ben.”It scared me,” Ben Bostrom said on Sunday morning at Barber Motorsports Park. “I was up all night just thinking how close we come to losing our brother on the stupidest little crash.”Bostrom put the blame squarely on McCormick and the on-site medical staff, which he didn’t feel responded quickly enough.”McCormick’s a good kid, but you can’t be aggressive like that,” Bostrom said after noting McCormick’s earlier close pass of teammate Jake Zemke and subsequent crash at New Jersey Motorsports Park. “This isn’t a Supersport class.” Bostrom added, “Plus he took one of the most popular guys out of the grid.””And unfortunately Eric got hurt out of the deal. I’m not sure, but I think the bike must’ve rotated between his legs, but it had already broke the footpeg, so it was like a knife and, man, it fileted him open, it was pretty scary.” A photo Ben took with his iPhone shows a football-sized patch of skin being opened up.Bostrom saw the crash in the final turn and wondered why Eric didn’t walk the 100 or so yards back to the pits. Eric later told him he felt a little dizzy because the bike hit him in the back of the head quite hard “and didn’t realize he was losing a lot of blood.” When he finally looked down and saw blood streaming out of his leg, he laid down, knowing how severe the injury could be, “because he knows where it’s at and the artery and the ambulance is just chilling, so it scared him too,” Ben said.”The scariest thing is came two centimeters from his femoral nerve and the ambulance took five minutes to get here or he’d have bled out. They’re just so stupid. Why would it take forever? And so Eric’s laying here and he doesn’t know how lucky he is to be alive. Well he does. The doctor told him, ‘You’re lucky, especially because it took five minutes.’ I don’t know what they were doing.”Bostrom continued. “They spent a few hours on him last night cleaning it out and putting in a hundred and some odd stitches,” at Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, “and then he’s in the hospital right now.”If there’s any good news, it’s that no bones were broken and he expects to make a full recovery.”They went through all the epidural layers, it went slightly into the fascia sack, so the muscle came out of it, but because he missed the femoral he’s so lucky I can’t tell you,” Ben Bostrom said.