Jean Turner | February 13, 2017
Taylor Robert Injury Update
For the first time since his horrific crash at the King of the Motos event on Sunday, February 5, Taylor Robert gave an update on his condition. The Red Bull KTM rider suffered a high-speed get-off and was taken to the hospital, but there was very little word on his condition in the next few days.
Updates throughout the week from his mother revealed his prognosis was worse than initially suspected, and Robert’s recent social media post gave a full (and rather shocking) damage report.
His update came Sunday evening, February 12, exactly one week after leaving a crater-sized dent in the Johnson Valley desert. It was also accompanied by video footage from the helicopter showing his crash while racing side by side with his Red Bull KTM teammate Cody Webb. (Footage from Webb’s helmet cam (not shown) revealed that Robert was not within Webb’s view at the time of his crash.)
Following is Taylor Robert’s post:
“I’ve been in the hospital for a week now and today (Sunday, February 12) is the first day I’ve felt some solid progress. A week ago today this video happened when I was battling with Cody Webb for the lead.
Crash footage from helicopter:
https://www.facebook.com/taylorrobert3333/videos/1418011394910052/
“I was rushed from King of the Motos to the hospital. My initial prognosis was small tears in my liver and kidney, along with two broken ribs and fractures in my sacrum, L2, L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae.
[Editor’s note: Robert confirmed that he has full range of motion and no spinal cord damage from the broken vertebrae.]
“After being in the hospital for two days I was having intense stomach pains and had another CT scan that showed a tear in my intestines. I was rushed into emergency surgery around midnight. Surgery didn’t go as easily as they had hoped so I was sedated on a ventilator, with my abdomen open for two days before doing another operation.
“I finally moved out of ICU yesterday (Saturday, February 11) and am on my way to making some progress toward recovery. I want to thank my fiancé and mom for staying by my side this whole time. I also want to thank all my friends who stopped to check on me out on the track.
“Luckily though all of this I don’t have any head injuries and they think I passed out from my lungs collapsing and pain. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me and I will start working on getting back to everyone ASAP.”
Taylor Robert Injury Update
Colton Haaker was the first to come upon Robert’s crash scene, and his most recent “vlog” revealed the details of what the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider called “the scariest race of my life!” including helmet cam footage of coming up on the downed rider, stopping the race and rushing for help when the radios failed.