In Memoriam

I genuinely had to read the post from NASCAR three times this morning just to begin processing it. My brain was stuck on "oh, is he retiring?" for fully ten minutes.

He'd been unwell the last couple of races, but no-one really thought anything of it...drivers race sick all the time. He won the Truck series race in Dover just a few days ago:


Zanardi, Busch, Miettenen all in the last month, and Marquez and Zarco had terrifying near-misses at Catalunya; it's been a tough period for the motorsport world.
Do you they know what caused his death?
 
I know zero about NASCAR and even I know who he was. For some reason I thought of Chadwick Bozeman, another star in the prime of life.
 
So far, no solid information has been released. There are whispers online of infections that went septic, but of course, no one knows right now. This is terribly shocking and sad.

My father one time had what seemed to him was just a typical upset stomach.

Turns out, his appendix had ruptured and it didn’t typically hurt like 😣 😓 😩 😫 😖. And then he just collapsed and almost died from sepsis.

Sometimes, someone’s body doesn’t react to a condition like how 90-95% typically does.
 
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I clench when I hear about preventable deaths. I remember when Jim Henson died from something so preventable/curable but he was busy with his Muppets and was raised as a Christian Scientist and generally avoided doctors. I think I was actually angry with him for awhile. We all try to push when we are sick but there is a limit. No reflection on Kyle--just voicing frustration.
 
I think jumping to he ignored illness symptoms is a bit premature. Or that he refused to seek medical care.

Sepsis can happen quickly or like my brother's mil who had meningitis without obvious symptoms other than a headache before she collapsed/died.

Until or if the family chooses to release other information, I think it is wise to express condolences and sadness on his death
 
Well we know he had some medical care, because two weeks ago as he was finishing the race he radioed for the NASCAR doctor to meet him at his trailer. But that's not unusual that a driver will drive through some illnesses.
 
So far, no solid information has been released. There are whispers online of infections that went septic, but of course, no one knows right now. This is terribly shocking and sad.
An official update… sepsis caused by severe pneumonia. I understand that many athletes try to push through illness, but he must have been in a great deal of pain and suffering anytime he tried to breathe. So sad, and probably preventable with more timely treatment.
 
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An official update… sepsis caused by severe pneumonia. I understand that many athletes try to push through illness, but he must have been in a great deal of pain and suffering anytime he tried to breathe. So sad, and probably preventable with more timely treatment.
I had a hunch sepsis was going to be at least part of the cause. I was once considered at risk for going septic and because I was still mid-steroid taper from a severe drug reaction to an antibiotic a little over a month before that, I was admitted to the hospital for a week so they could make sure I wasn't going to go septic. It wasn't until I was reading an article about the actress Charlbi Dean passing due to sepsis the following year that I actually realised just how fast it can progress.

My condolences to Kyle Busch's family and friends.
 
An official update… sepsis caused by severe pneumonia. I understand that many athletes try to push through illness, but he must have been in a great deal of pain and suffering anytime he tried to breathe. So sad, and probably preventable with more timely treatment.
There is a tendency, in motorsport, to insist that a driver shouldn't miss a race unless they physically cannot do it. A driver being sick is frequently viewed as "not good enough" of an excuse, and younger drivers are often afraid of stepping out of the car for fear of their replacement keeping it.

It's a part of the sport I desperately wish we would change.
 
I wish people, particularly people in the prime of their lives, would be more cautious when it comes to pnemonia. Pnemonia doesn't care about age or status. And it must be frustrating for emergency rooms to receive these people and realize they are past the point of no return. It is so preventable. I'm so sorry for his family.
 
I do not know about his course or work expectations (nor do I think anyone really knows).

Sepsis is an extreme response by the body to try and fight infection. Anyone can develop and die of sepsis regardless of health status. We tend to think it happens only to people with underlying conditions. But the truth is, anyone can develop sepsis.

How many of us "push" through an illness? Have none of you gone about your daily lives feeling very sick?

It's a terrible death and loss to the racing world. When something that we think medicine can cure happens, it's natural to look for someone, something to blame.
 
My condolences to Kyle Busch's family.

I developed sepsis from salmonella in my blood stream. My organs started failing, and I was rushed to emergency surgery where doctors removed abscesses from my abdomen. My sister told me later I was in surgery for seven hours and the surgeon said it was "touch and go" the whole time. I had lots of doctors visiting me once I was out of the ICU. They told me I was one in a million because I survived. Several years later, my cousin developed sepsis after her heart transplant. She was gone within 24 hours. I don't know why I survived and she didn't. I am very grateful to still be here.
 
I do not know about his course or work expectations (nor do I think anyone really knows).
NASCAR is uniquely intense. From the moment the season starts in late January with the 500 to the last race of the year at the start of November in Homestead Miami, they race literally every single weekend, no breaks. Not only that, many of the drivers do not just the top-level Cup races, but the second-division races and the third-tier truck races. The race Kyle won last weekend was a truck race. But all up, it's a wildly intense schedule.

It's not hard to see how this could easily happen in NASCAR vs, for example, F1, where there are regularly scheduled breaks in the calendar. But it does also come back to that attitude that you don't give up your car for anything and physical illness is not generally accepted as an excuse.
 
From 16 years ago, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Claude Lemieux on Battle of the Blades (CBC):


And Monday at the Bell Centre:


Some news outlets are saying he took his own life and I’m beyond heartbroken.
 
I became a big fan to the chagrin of my leaf and Red Wing friends. He was "the pest" but on BOTB, he was just lovely. He was one of those players and figures my dad and I bonded over.

Reports are suicide, which makes this shock even more unreal. :(
 
I clench when I hear about preventable deaths. I remember when Jim Henson died from something so preventable/curable
Pneumonia. I remember this because my doctor sent me to get an pneumonia shot right after that and one of her arguments was that people die of pneumonia the way Jim Henson did--fast and hard--and he likely had a better hospital team than I would.
Singer Peabo Bryson has died.

:wuzrobbed I remember many a slow dance/moonlight skate to "I'm So Into You" when I was in high school. I know he's done a lot of other things, but that's THE Peabo Bryson song for me.
 

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