Tuesday, April 30, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
Eight days after he nearly lost his life in a small airplane crash in Alabama, NASCAR team owner Jack Roush said he plans to continue flying his own aircraft "as soon as (the doctors) will let me."
Roush, 60, said he intends to live life at full-throttle once he is released from the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center -- perhaps as early as next week. Roush suffered a closed head injury, collapsed lung and leg and rib fractures in the crash.
"I understand what I need to do to live 60 years ... and I've just got to keep faith in those principals that I understand -- and I will," Roush said Saturday in a teleconference from his hospital bed.
"I won't pull back and I won't be any less competitive and I won't be less than I can be every day of my life. I'll do everything I can in all the areas and opportunities that are in front of me."
Roush said he has no recollection of the April 19 crash of a twin-engine experimental plane. It has been reported that the plane Roush was flying clipped a power line before plunging into a small lake in Troy, Ala.
"I remember nothing about the 18th or the day of the 19th or the day of the 20th, the 21st or the 22nd or the 23rd or the 24th," Roush said. "My first memories are of the things that happened on the 25th.
"The first contact (the doctors) had was they had to tame and chain down the beast because they had some work they needed to do and didn't have time to put up with my foolishness. So they induced a coma and they strapped me down -- as well they should have. They strapped me down tight."
Roush and his family credit Larry Hicks, a former Marine who was trained in the underwater rescue of pilots, for saving Roush's life and said he plans to meet with Hicks either Sunday or Monday.
"I've got a big hug for him," Roush said of Hicks. "We're anxious to express our appreciation and to find out what we can do to enrich his and their lives in some way.
"Life hasn't been good to Larry Hicks; he's suffering (from) nose and throat cancer most horribly in the last year."
Dr. Samuel Wyndham, who has been treating Roush since he was transported to UAB Medical Center, said that Roush is well ahead of schedule in his recovery.
"We've all been very impressed with his speed of recovery and overcoming these injuries," Wyndham said. "I think we all have been thoroughly impressed and I would estimate that less than five people out of 100 would have survived similar injuries and I certainly wouldn't say that they would be on the phone with a press conference eight days later."
Wyndham said Roush likely would have to undergo two or three months of physical therapy to rehabilitate his broken left leg and ankle, but would be recovered from the head, lung and rib injuries in four to six weeks.
Roush said he had hoped he would be able to return to the track this weekend when the Winston Cup Series visits Richmond International Raceway, "but I think when they get the schedule of rehab going on me at the University of Michigan, which is my next stop, that I'll probably be too busy for it.
"But when I get into the serious rehab and see what kind of things they'll give me that I can do away from the hospital, and what things I've got to do there, we'll have a better idea. I'm hoping that within a month I'll be able to go into the hospital a couple of times a week and to do some things at home and on the road and have them be happy with me."
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