10/24/11 10:30am

As you may have already heard our friend Troy Collins is severely injured.

The following post is to give you an idea of what has happened to our friend Troy.

The information stated here may not be %100 correct.
Much of it is second or third hand and all of it has not been verified.

He has suffered a Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI).

Difusal Axonal Injury (DAI): Basically, the condition is caused when the brain shakes around violently within the skull, which happens when there's very rapid acceleration and deceleration. Shaken Baby Syndrome is one example of it, and in adults, you see it a lot with victims of high speed car accidents. During that acceleration/deceleration, axons are sheared, which is permanent. Axons are the nerve cells, or pathways on which neurons travel (neurons basically send messages across our brain). When the axons are sheared, there's no way to repair those pathways/nerve cells, they are permanently broken - that means that the messages that would be sent across those nerve cells can never be received by the part of the brain that needs to receive those messages. And since this condition is diffuse, it means that those pathways are broken in multiple areas of the brain.

This is a severe injury to the brain. I was told Troy has damage to his right frontal lobe.

As far as I understood large sections of his brain are damaged beyond repair.

Troy was in an off road motor cycle accident on Sunday 10/23/11 at one of his usual race venues, Stonyford. We speculate he was in the finishing stages of an enduro ride/race (~4 hours long). It's reported that he had some how fallen off his bike but apparently was getting back on and was passed by fellow riders. Enduro riders are started in stages spacing them apart. After this it was reported that Troy may have even checked in, at a predefined checkpoint, as it is mandatory in an enduro and had said he was ok and carried on. Subsequently he was found unconscious at a point on the track that was a steep decline into an incline/jump into a left hand bank turn. We are not sure if he missed it or passed out or what??? It seems no one had seen what happened. Was this the place of his massive injury? Did he sustain the massive injury earlier? Did the effects catch up to him at this point?? We are not sure. Immediately after he was discovered unconcious Troy was heli-vac'd to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, CA. Fourtunately the helicopter was able to land in close proximity to where he was found. So luckily he did not have to endure a long haul out of the course to get to the care he needed.

Currently he is at Enloe. He is unconscious heavily sedated and on a ventilator. Ton of iv's, monitors and probes. They have him seated upright to let gravity help with the swelling. Right side of face is bruised up but it just doesn't fit the picture with the extent of his internal head injury. If you've seen Troy after a race you'd understand that it just doesn't seem right. It's normal to see him with bumps and bruises after a race. You look at him now and just expect him to open his eyes and talk. He must have taken a seriously massive header or blow to the head. Yet his helmet doesn't show the expected signs of such and event.

The first 4-7 days is the time period before any major decisions have to be made. The odd days post injury date 1 3 5 7 are supposed to be the tough ones with regards to swelling. They will want to minimize his contact and excitement.

It's really hard to see him like this and take it all in.

Cindy is with him. Family is flying in. The boys are with the neighbors, they do not know the extent of it. For now sit tight. Thoughts and prayers, keep them with him.

Feel free to post your well wishes condolences and concerns here.

Check back for any updates on Troy's status.
Updates will be posted as often as possible.

-Dave Polzer