Q&A: Brack, Rahal, Gregori - Pt.1.

Much attention has been focused on Kenny Brack since his horrific season finale accident at Texas Motor Speedway, as the racing world monitors his recovery from multiple fractures incurred when his car hit the catch fencing.

Fortunately, the Swede's progress has been good, to the extent that, this week, he was able to take part in a three-way press call with team boss Bobby Rahal and Dr Robert Gregori, who is in charge of his rehabilitation after the incident.

Tom Blattler (MC):
I know we've had a lot of people that inquired about talking to Kenny over the last couple of weeks. Kenny's progress has done very well, as we'll let both Kenny and Dr. Gregori talk about that. However, at this point, I want to give you a brief overlay of how Kenny is doing, where he's at now.

He's currently at Indianapolis at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana. Kenny, who is the 1998 Indy Racing League champion and 1999 Indy 500 winner. was driving the #15 Pioneer/Miller Lite Dallara-Honda at the Texas Motor Speedway on 12 October when he suffered massive injuries, including a fractured right femur, fractured sternum, fractured lumbar L3 vertebrae, and fractures to both ankles. He had surgery on the ankles on 12 October, and surgery on the vertebrae on 13 October. Both of those surgeries were done in Dallas' Parkland Hospital, and he began his rehabilitation programme at Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana last week and will continue that process.

At this point, I think I'll open it up for Kenny. I know a lot of people want to talk to you, Kenny, find out how you're doing, what your prognosis is like going on right now...

Kenny Brack:
I think it's coming along pretty well, Tom. Considering what we went through in Texas, I'm doing pretty good. I'm up and moving about every day, doing lots of rehab, regaining my strength basically. So, I'm not complaining at all. It's great to see progress every day.

MC:
Are you feeling pretty well? I know you said you took a couple of laps in the wheelchair around the facility, so you're trying to get your cardio back up as well.

KB:
Obviously, I can't walk yet or anything like that because my ankles can't take any weight. But I wheel around in the wheelchair, and I try to get some cardio back - basically build myself back up to when I get to the point where I can start walking again. I'm trying to do whatever I can to basically get myself in the best shape possible in the shortest amount of time here.

MC:
I know we talked about it briefly, Kenny, but can you give a short day in the life of Kenny Brack right now. What do you do in the morning and afternoon and the evening?

KB:
Well, you get up 7-30, eight o'clock, then you eat a little bit, get dressed, you get in a wheelchair and go down to the gym. You normally do weight-lifting for about an hour
in the morning between nine and ten, then come back to the room. By then you are pretty tired. Although I'm not lifting the same amount of weight I did before the accident, I still lift, so I get tired. So I rest for about an hour or so, have some lunch, then it's time for the next hour of rehabilitation. You go and do that between one and two. That's more occupational therapy, which means things you learn how to transfer from one chair to another, do certain things at home so you sort of feel comfortable with everything until you can start using your legs again.

And that's also pretty hard. You do you some cardio in there, too, then you go back and you rest a little bit. Then, at four o'clock, it's time for the next session. After that, it's dinner, you know, restroom, showers and stuff, and all of a sudden it's eight o'clock and it's time to rest again. So it's pretty busy in this hospital, I've got to say. But that's good because, you know, it's good to keep busy and get more energy every day.

MC:
Thanks, Kenny. I'm sure a lot of people want to ask you a few questions but, first, let's go over to Bobby Rahal, the owner for Team Rahal.

Bobby, it's been a difficult time for the team, as well. How is everybody putting the season past them and moving on at this point over at Team Rahal's headquarters?

Bobby Rahal:
Well, naturally, it's great to hear Kenny. We spoke a little earlier today, of course, and last week. Although he doesn't really remember it, I was with him just before he
went into surgery down in Dallas.

I want to thank, again, all the people at Parkland for a great job, and of course Dr Gregori and everybody in Indianapolis. I know Kenny's spirits and his discipline and what have you very well. I have no doubt that he's going to come back faster than people would expect. It just seems to be the way he is.

The team and everybody's behind him. Everybody is obviously concerned. I think we've had numerous members of the team over the past several weeks with Kenny and Anita. I think one of the things we've been very pleased about is the number of well wishes from people all over the world coming into the website or come into the office. I'm sure we've forwarded them all on to Kenny. If he ever thought he had fans, he shouldn't worry about that now because I think it's pretty clear he had a lot of them.

You know, we're just anxious for him to get strong, get better. He's going to be a new father here in the next few months. We're excited about that, everybody on the team. You know, there's a lot going on. But obviously we're all behind him a hundred per cent. I know he's in good hands there. I know, as I say, he'll be back much faster than what people think.

MC:
Thanks, Bob. Let's move on to Dr Robert Gregori. He's the assistant medical director here at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana. Dr Gregori, could you kind of go through the process Kenny has gone through here in the last ten days at the rehabilitation centre, what type of rehab you had to do on these type of injuries.

Dr Robert Gregori:
Sure. I'd like to take maybe a minute here to help put all this into perspective. I work with Ortho Indy as one of the non-surgeon physiatrists with the group, working
alongside doctors like Dr Trammell, Kevin Scheid. They'll do the surgical aspects of care, and we do the rehab aspects. Hopefully, with the two parts combined, we have the best optimum outcomes.

When Kenny came to us, I knew the history, obviously saw the crash. I really expected that any one of those injuries to his ankles, his femur, his spine, could have been life-threatening by themselves. He had the surgical repair of both the ankle injuries, as well the femur. His spine has a two-part process. Normally, for a lumbar compression fracture like he suffered - where the front part of the spine essentially is compressed - the part that bears for us and holds one segment up between the other segments alongside of it, above and below, involves what's called a posterior stabilisation procedure. That means coming through the back, before the patients are literally turned over and, from the front side, the surgery adds further stability by operating on the front.

During the course of the surgery on Kenny's spine, as the backside of the spine was being stabilized on the day after the injury, he developed what's called a dural tear or a leak of spinal fluid through the dura. The dura is the sac, if you will, the membrane that contains the spinal fluid around the brain and the spinal cord. When there's a tear of that dura, the spinal fluid will leak, and that has to be repaired in order to adequately close up the wound.

In the process of the posterior stabilisation, which went very well, there was a small issue with the dural tear. To keep that leak under control and help stabilise that, it required a couple extra hours - I think two hours - of extra surgical time. So they couldn't finish the procedure by doing the front or anterior fusion piece. That's a plan for tomorrow. Dr Trammell is going to take Kenny back for surgery, and finish the spine stabilisation process.

There hasn't been any negative effects of not having them completed together. He's been well stabilised by an external brace that he wears. But that procedure is to be completed tomorrow to add further stability to the spine and allow him to continue to heal there.

Remarkably, with all these injuries, he's had what appears to be no neurologic effects from the spine injury, which an injury like that frequently will cause paraplegia, inability to move or feel the legs. There's been no findings to suggest that there's any spinal cord damage or nerve damage there.

With his ankle injuries, as well, we sometimes see nerve injuries occurring with that type of trauma, but he's wiggling his toes well and has good sensation, and is expected to recover well as these bones continue to heal.

He probably had a stretch injury to his left arm that has caused some mild weakness involving the arm, a little bit of nerve stretching, but we expect that to recover fully, as well.

It's always important to me to see, when I admit somebody to the hospital here, what their attitude is like. With Kenny, he's obviously a champion. Every word out of his mouth is a positive one, and he follows that with positive action. He's geared up for winning, and he's going to win with all these injuries that he's had. After he's given adequate time to heal, I foresee him recovering very well and getting back to doing the things he loves in time.

But the injuries as they are require time to heal. Bones heal, fortunately. But even when all the technologies that we can apply surgically, he still needs probably another three or four months for the injuries to his ankles to heal adequately for him to begin the process of weight-bearing and walking. As for his spine, he will need another potentially three months to stay in a brace after the spine surgery is completed tomorrow to allow the spine to heal. But, again, I expect to see him recovering very well.

After he's allowed to bear weight, he probably will have such good strength in other parts that he's maintained through the process of the exercise he's doing and staying ready, so that when he is allowed to come out of his spinal brace and is allowed to move forward with weight bearing in his lower extremities, he'll be really taking off. It shouldn't be more than a couple, three months after that to get him back doing all that he loves to do.

So I think, from my perspective, as I said, I anticipated seeing him pretty well bruised up and feeling it. He came to us, although he had some big injuries - and I don't want to undermine that aspect of it - but he has shown what it takes to really recover well from this kind of multiple trauma.

MC:
Thank you very much, Doctor. That was very thorough. I'm sure it shed a lot of light on what was earlier talked about right after the accident. At this point, we're going to go into our question and answer period.

Q:
To follow up on this procedure that's going to happen tomorrow, exactly what will be done? Is it going to be done at Methodist or where?

RG:
It will be at Methodist, and Dr Trammell will be performing that procedure. Did you have questions about the specific nature of the procedure?

Q:
Exactly what will be done in that procedure?

RG:
He'll be utilising what's called an anterior approach, meaning he'll go from in front of the spine. They have to go through the abdomen to get to that aspect of the spine, and then fusion with instrumentation or some hardware, metal hardware, and probably some bone fusion, as well. Kenny, did he discuss it with you last night?

KB:
Yeah. It's going to be like a bracket put on the inside of the spine, together with a piece of bone that's going to grow onto there. Like he put it to me, you know, if I
ever break my back again, it's not going to be at that place, because it's going to be stronger than the original. It's going to be a very strong piece when it's all done.

RG:
Without that next piece, there's an increased risk of developing some angular deformity at that level, or going on and having some further destruction and, potentially, some nerve injury. With that part tomorrow, that will pretty much eliminate the risk for those other things from developing.

Q:
Kenny, any doubt in your mind you'll be back in the race car at some point, whether it looks like six months, if I'm doing the math based on what the doctor says? Any doubt in your mind?

KB:
No. Right now, I haven't taken any decision because I want to work out as hard as I can, I want to heal up as much as I can. If I get to be as fit as I think I need to be to drive a race car, you know, I don't have any thoughts about quitting right now.

But, you know, that is a decision that I will take when I get to that stage, obviously together with the team and everything. But that won't be right now. But, no, I still love
racing. You know, I'm determined to get back to a hundred per cent. That's what all my energy is devoted for right now.

Q:
Have you seen the accident? I'm sure you have at this point. When was that that you saw it, if you did?

KB:
Yeah, I've seen it. Only picture mode right now. I haven't been able to find anybody with a video. But, yeah, I've seen it.

Q:
Kenny, I was going to ask when you plan on getting back together and getting back into the race car, but I also had a question for Bobby. Is there a back-up plan in case, maybe next year, Kenny can't go for a couple of races? Do you have somebody in there that can replace him for a few races?

BR:
No. Obviously, Kenny is our driver. Obviously, he's out for a while. You know, I think Kenny's value to us has always been far more than just him driving. He's been an integral part of our team, in the decisions we make. He's always been very much a part of that whole process. Even though he's laid up in the hospital, I don't see that changing. I have yet to really talk to Kenny about who he thinks we should get to do some of the testing, some of the early races - I think there's time for that. Certainly, there's a number of options out there.

But I don't think we're in any real rush to do anything at this point in time. I think one of the first things is to [find out the length of the recovery]. I've asked Dr Trammell to give me a good sense of just how long Kenny's recuperation period will be. As I say, I have no doubt, just like every lap he takes, I have no doubt he'll do a lot quicker than what everybody says. But, you know, Kenny and I will sit down and talk about, you know, who we can get for the winter period here, the testing period, and we'll go from there. We'll just see what happens.

But, first thing's first, and that's for Kenny to get healthy. From our standpoint, having him back in the car, is easy for us. We'll just let him get healthy and we will work
together to figure out who could be a good lieutenant in the meantime for him and we'll go from there.

Q:
Kenny, at the moment right now, in the days since that happened, things have come clear to you, do you feel a sense of luckiness or unluckiness? What is the over-riding emotion you have felt since the accident and in the days since?

KB:
I feel that, obviously, sitting in the middle of something like that, you've got to be.... I don't know, you've probably got to have God riding with you in the car or something
to help you out. But, yeah, I'm sure you can call it luck or whatever. But I certainly feel that I had help from above to still be here because it was, you know, a big hit. But it also shows the safety of the cars, and I think the medical expertise that's out there today, not only the trackside support, which is obviously great, the guys took great care of me.

You know, it's very easy when you're lying in the middle of the track for somebody to make a little mistake and you have a broken back - all of a sudden the injury's a lot worse. They really took good care of me. The safety team, I've got to thank from the bottom of my heart.

From that point, they took me to the hospital and I had a great team of doctors down there in Dallas that took good care of me. You know, my team, I can't say enough about them either. You know, in situations where drivers get to hospital, nobody's there from the team. The team, everybody was there. Bobby flew in from Mexico. I've had just a tremendous amount of support from everybody. Obviously, it's invaluable in a situation like that. Obviously, I'm in Indianapolis now, Terry Trammell, Dr Scheid, all these guys are used to dealing with injuries like that, Gregori, all the doctors here, they take tremendous good care of me.

So I feel lucky in that I'm in such a good company. My wife took obviously a lot of work. She worked a lot during this process. I just feel lucky that I have such good
persons around me that really supports me in a situation like this. You know, that's half the healing thing. When you have people like that, it's easy for me to stay positive and just do the best I can, too.

I feel very lucky to be in the situation I am. Obviously, I have a different kind of cards in my hand now than I had three, four weeks ago. But the main thing is, you got to play the best you can with what you have. Right now my full focus is to get well, and then after that we'll take the next step, you know. But I feel very, very confident that I will get, you know, good. I'm determined to do it fast, too.

Q:
In the mornings, what drives you? You seem to be the kind of guy that maybe the doctors are going to have to continually warn not to get too ahead of yourself. Do you
find yourself really wanting to do that extra rep, whatever you want to call it? Do you have to watch yourself a little bit?

KB:
Well, I listen to my body. If I feel really tired, worn out, aching, then obviously you got to take it a little easy. If you feel energised and stuff, then I go for it. Yesterday, I was outside, it was a nice day. I ran two laps around the hospital in my wheelchair, you know. I timed them. Just to get some cardiovascular exercise. Today, I was up there doing one hour of weight-lifting in the morning, and I did pretty good at that.

But there have been other days when, you know, I haven't felt that great, like when I first came here five, six, seven days ago when, you know, I was just aching, my back was aching, everything was not good. Well, then obviously you can't overdo it. I'm used to working out. One thing when you work out is, yeah, you got to wear yourself out, but you also got to give yourself time to recover, otherwise you just keep wearing yourself out, you never going to get any stronger.

It's the same with this thing, you know. So I feel pretty good. But, yeah, maybe sometimes I want to do more than I maybe can. So far it's been very good and it's been a very good experience here in this rehab hospital. I really have gained a lot of energy. I can do a lot of things on my own now.

Q:
Kenny, you're doing these laps. That's kind to be painful on your sternum, doesn't it?

KB:
Yeah, it is painful on the sternum. But the thing which is kind of cool, although I have a lot of broken bones, is that I don't have any cast or plaster on my body. I mean, everything's I guess screwed together or whatever, which obviously increases my mobility.

The sternum, it's not really anything you can do about it. It's just the way it is. It hurts when people come in here and tell me funny stories, because I have to laugh. I throw them out after the first or second one, because it really hurts. Same thing goes when you do certain exercise with your arms, obviously. But, you know, you just got to tough it out and do these things because it's going to take three months for that to heal. You know, you can't allow yourself to just rest for three months and then get going because then you have such an uphill that it's going to take forever to get up the slope. So I keep pushing.

Q:
What are you doing to pass the time? Are you reading books, playing your guitar?

KB:
There's not a lot of time to pass, to be honest with you. With three good workouts a day, you know, maybe a couple of visits, phone calls, all the other stuff that goes with it, I'm pretty busy from basically nine in the morning to five, six in the evening. Then you have to shower, do all that stuff. Of course, maybe there's a the little
downtime sometimes. Maybe I play the guitar a little bit. I haven't done that much of it because, like I said, I haven't had that much time. But I feel kind of busy. It's not boring by any stretch of the imagination.