Chris Blais Injured pre running Vegas - Reno

[Crawdaddy 96]

Chris Blais.Com

The latest from his mom on the D-37 message board is:

Hello to all you ADV Riders! I have finally been able to skim through some of the message boards. The amount of support has been astounding. We just can't believe it. The amount of phone calls, visitors here, messages, emails is just incredible! People are amazing from all over the world.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU! Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. The positive feed from all of you is helping us get through this rough spot.

Chris is amazing. He is keeping me positive and I'm trying to do be so strong for him. The first thing he said was he has no regrets. The second thing he said was that maybe some day he will save someone else's life by being a good example by wearing the Leatt Neck Brace. He truly feels this thing saved his life. Cyril had asked him on Day 1 of the pre-run if they should wear the braces (because he didn't know how fast/slow they would be pre-running) - Chris said "We need to wear them always. We are setting an example." Cyril understood. The next thing he did was give David/Quinn a handheld radio to carry with them and also one for himself/Cyril. He saved his own life!

Basically what happened was Chris was in silt and hit a square-edge. He said he was only going about 50mph. He did a nose-wheelie for quite a ways trying to save it. He went over the bars hitting head first then his head folded to the left, breaking his collar bone and the neck brace. It takes 1500 pounds of pressure to break the brace. It did it's job. The next thing that happened was that the bike landed on Chris, crushing in into the ground stomach side up. This is probably what broke his T7 vertabre. Some of the fragments of bone from the T7 were "resting" on/in his spinal cord like splinters causing the leg numbness. He never lost consciousness while down on the ground but said to Johnny and Quinn "I need a helicopter". Johnny and Quinn would not let Chris be taken out of the desert any other way (because at one point there were talks of driving him out to the highway by the EMT's and others from what I understand).

This all happened about 30 miles north of Tonopah, NV. This is a very rural area and also part of the problem of us trying to get the help Chris needed. Nobody's fault but just saying, things could have gone way more wrong and thank God for all of the people that were there with him and from what I understand, there were quite a handful of bike guys and truck racers. THANK YOU To these people!

The surgery took 4 hours and the splinters were removed and the T7 was fused to the other vertabre. The surgery was done immediately on Sunday night by a very known specialist here in Reno. He said the surgery went perfectly and it could not have gone any better. Thank you Mr. Song!

Now we wait. We wait for the swelling to go down and for the healing to continue.

Chris has been doing great the whole time. He is not hooked up to any machines at all at this point. As of last night, he was moved from ICU to critical care where he has his own private room. Yes he's sore and yes he's ready to jump up but just can't right now. He's been sitting up for hours at a time and is able to do many things by himself. They are pushing him along and he is doing everything that is asked of him times 10. He wants to get to rehab to start the process. They have never once said that his leg numbness is permanent - never once.

TRULY THANK YOU. There is no other sport in the world like ours, none. Where in the world would people who don't even know you offer you their home and their vehicles or come to visit you because they also race but maybe a horse or a midget car or a boat. People are just incredible and it's blowing us away!

Chris wants David and Quinn to still race Vegas to Reno and is pushing for them to do so. We're pushing for Cyril too maybe as a solo ride or with someone else. He wants life to move forward for everyone and does not want his accident to cause any pauses in KTM's plan, his plan, or anyone else's life plans and goals. He also wants me to still race it with my team but I can't. I would not be focused at all.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and continue to support my husband as you all have already been doing. His character is going to help his healing process. His attitude will help mine.

Not sure when I will post again but I will read them.

Thank you and God Bless!

"Our greatest Glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we do!"

__________________

Patty Blais

[bikeslut 1]

my thoughts and prayers for the family...

a reminder to each of us... ATGATT

and what we do (even if much slower than Mr. Blais) is dangerous.

[Ride-Orange 2]

Thanks for posting this Crawdad'

God bless Chris and help him to a speedy, and FULL recovery. Also wishing Patty and Chris' extended family strength and patience.

[backhoedoc 0]

Thanks for the post.

In some small way we are all connected. Chris and the family will be in our thoughts and prayers THE DOC.