Teen race car driver thanks doctors, nurses for saving his life

At the age of 17, Joshua Jackson’s racing career was kicking into high gear.

The Albuquerque resident was applying for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program for young minority race car drivers, and had a good shot of being enrolled. After all, Jackson had been driving since he was 5 and has won national championships in his respective age groups.

On Aug. 8, 2015, his driving dreams were detoured.

Jackson was participating in a race at the Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces when he was involved in a crash. At first, his mother thought it was a normal crash. Normal for the racetrack, at least, she said.

“He’s been in a million crashes,” Ginger Jackson told ABC-7. “I’ve seen his car on fire. I didn’t think that this (one) was any different. It didn’t seem any different.”

Ginger admitted that she wasn’t overly concerned even as she drove to University Medical Center in El Paso, where Josh was airlifted.

“I thought he was just passed out,” Ginger said. “I thought it was just a precaution — until we talked to the neurosurgeon.”

The surgeon told Josh’s mother that when a car slammed into the driver’s side window of his race car, it actually connected with Josh’s helmet. The impact cracked his skull, exposing his brain and damaging his left eye beyond repair.

“Josh’s outcome was very bleak in the beginning. Nobody thought he was going to make it,” Ginger told ABC-7. “The trauma team constantly told me, ‘You need to be prepared for the worst.’ ‘We don’t know how he is surviving still, but it doesn’t look good.'”

Josh ended up pulling through after weeks in U.M.C.’s Intensive Care Unit. His mother took him to rehabilitation centers in Colorado and Nebraska so he could learn to walk and talk again. His family made the decision to forgo work and school for the eight months it took to help Josh regain his regular life skills.

“I think we’re pretty lucky that the worst we got out of this (is) his speech, which gets better every single day,” Ginger said, adding that Josh is working to overcome aphasia, which is a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate. It can be treated with speech therapy.

Ginger was so grateful to have her son, she reached out to U.M.C. to see if she could personally thank the trauma doctors and nurses who worked that night to revive her son, and the team in the I.C.U. who helped him improve.

The reunion happened on Aug. 8, 2016, a year after the crash.

“All I can say is, thank you guys,” Josh said, glancing at the handful of smiling doctors and nurses who gathered in a hospital meeting room for the reunion.

“I admit, I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence that he’d be able to survive,” Dr. Cole Livingston told ABC-7. “His injuries (were) like something you’d see from someone riding a motorcycle without a helmet.”

Livingston told ABC-7 that the number of medical staff who attended the reunion was only a fraction of the doctors and nurses who took care of Josh during his stay at U.M.C., adding that the number was close to 60.

Ginger said she wanted to be sure that they all knew how vital their work was, and how thankful she was for their skills.

“I think it’s important that they know that it matters,” Ginger said. “What they do, even though some of the time it doesn’t work for other families, does work out. And we appreciate that and they need to know that we thank them.”

The personal show of gratitude was unexpected, said Livingston, adding, “It doesn’t happen a lot just because people move on with their lives.”

He told ABC-7 it was exciting to get the visit.

“This is why we get into this business. … We’re answering a calling,” Livingston said. “It’s always nice to see somebody come back having made a full recovery, being as healthy as Josh is, being able to move on with his life.”

For Josh, moving on means getting back to the racetrack.

“You’ve always got to try something again and see how well you can do,” Josh said. “If I do well, then I’ll race again.”

His mom has made peace with his choice.

“He’s amazing when you see him race,” she said. “You see that passion; it’s the only time he’s truly happy. And you have to support your kid.”

In the meantime, Josh said that his first goal is graduating. He begins his senior year at Menaul School in Albuquerque on Wednesday.