Vickers has a new appreciation for life

Vickers has a new appreciation for life


By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Brian Vickers will be the first to tell you—there’s nothing he loves more than hurtling around a racetrack at 200 mph.
“What I love to do is race,” Vickers said Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “It’s not only my job, it’s my passion.”
There’s no small degree of irony that a small blood clot coursing through his blood stream at roughly 60 beats per minute easily could have deprived him of the opportunity to do what he loves most.
More than that, it could have killed him.
Vickers, 26, appeared in the media center at Bristol to provide an update on the condition that has kept him out of a racecar since May, when he was diagnosed with blood clots in his legs and lungs.
One of those clots dislodged, traveled to his heart and moved through a small hole between the two upper chambers. Instead of working its way toward his brain and causing a stroke, the clot moved to one of the fingers on his left hand.
Vickers was lucky, and he knows it. To minimize the possibility of a stroke, he opted for surgery July 12 to close the hole in his heart. It was a difficult decision.
“My decision was this: If I had an operation, and something went wrong … God forbid I died—that wouldn’t be too good—but I feel good about where I’m going next, so I’m OK with that,” Vickers said. “My other option was not to close it and run the risk of a stroke. … I would rather die than have a stroke. That was kind of my thought process. I don’t want to live like a vegetable.”
Vickers has always been a thrill-seeker. Sky diving, scuba, skiing and biking are part of his persona, and he says his illness is most likely to amplify his voracious appetite for pursuits that might intimidate ordinary people.
“That sense of vulnerability just walking down the street has gone up, knowing that at any moment, something can happen,” he said. “I think that’s where my new appreciation for life comes in. That being said, I think that, when it comes to risk-taking—driving racecars, sky diving, living life, whatever it is—I’ve never really had a problem in the fear department, obviously. … I’m probably more apt to push it to the limit, to push it beyond the edge, in whatever I do, whether it’s racing or not, than I was before.
“I think once you have an appreciation of how precious life is, and how it can be gone in the blink of an eye, it makes you want to live life to the fullest in other areas.”
The experience also has turned Vickers’ orientation to a totally forward-looking perspective.
“For me, I put it completely behind me,” Vickers said. “I look forward 100 percent and enjoy every single day, enjoy every moment. You never know what can happen. I was 26 years old—I am 26 years old—and I was walking down the streets in Washington, D.C., and the next thing, I was in the hospital dying. I think I look 100 percent ahead.”
Let’s hope that what lies ahead allows Vickers to do what he loves most for as long as he wants to do it.