Courtesy of VoiceNews.com

By Lisa Gervais, Assistant Editor

Friends and family of 19-year-old motocross racer Ashlee Sokalski say she is in the race of her life.

The Chesterfield resident is in critical condition after crashing Thursday during the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.

“Ashlee’s a fighter,” her mother, Tanya Burgess, said from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville Monday morning. “This is the race of her life. You can just hear Ashlee saying, ‘Just give me two more laps, I can do this. Just give me more time.’”

Sokalski was going over a jump during a race Thursday afternoon when the accident happened.

“She was on her second day of racing and she was doing really, really well,” Burgess said.

The family thinks her brakes locked up while she was in the air. Traveling about 50 miles per hour, when she hit the ground, she was sent flying off her bike, which hit the ground, bounced back and landed on her.

Burgess, a trauma nurse, didn’t see the accident happen.

“I knew she was going through that part and all of the sudden I saw the medic flag go up,” she said. “We actually met up with the paramedics coming off the field at the same time. We went right into the trauma trailer and they couldn’t get her intubated.”

Storms in the area that day prevented medical crews from airlifting Sokalski to a hospital, so she first traveled by ambulance to a smaller hospital between Hurricane Mills and Nashville. En route, her father, a paramedic and firefighter in Oakland Township helped work on Sokalski in the ambulance. After arriving at the hospital she was then transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. The trip totaled around two hours.

“It’s been touch and go,” Burgess said. “They didn’t expect her to make the first night…She pretty much shredded her right lung.”

In addition to lung injuries, Sokalski has six broken ribs, a closed head injury, skull and possible neck fractures and had 30 units of blood transfused into her the first night she was in the hospital.

When the accident happened, Sokalski’s sister, Amanda Sokalski, was hundreds of miles away in the middle of a shift at the MJR Chesterfield Crossing movie theater when a friend ran in to tell her the news.

“We all know it’s dangerous, I race, too,” Amanda, 17, said. “But we never really thought it was this life threatening.”

Amanda travelled to Nashville to be with her sister.

“I saw her the first night, about 1 a.m., she wasn’t even recognizable,” she said.

Sokalski has been racing since she was 12 years old. She had been preparing a long time for the national championship, beating out more than 20,000 people from across the country to earn one of 1,386 qualifying positions.

“I’m excited because it’s my first year going to nationals and I’m ready to do good,” Sokalski said in a previous interview with The Voice before heading to Hurricane Mills.

Now her family and friends wait, “minute-to-minute,” according to her mother.

“She hasn’t woken up at all,” Burgess said. “At times she’ll move her head a little, she’s flexing her arms once in awhile. She hasn’t opened eyes yet…we’re really not sure her full neuro status. She almost arrested again yesterday.”

A few years ago Sokalski fell off her bike and shattered her leg. Doctors told her she’d never ride again, but she defied the odds and got back on her bike.

“Ashlee is such a fighter; that little girl is tough as nails,” Burgess said.

Her family is now relying on Ashlee’s strength, their faith and an outpouring of support from friends, family and strangers.

“Facebook is the most amazing prayer network I’ve ever seen,” Burgess said. “There’s people all across the country praying for her.”

Amanda Sokalski is now spearheading a fundraising campaign for the anticipated medical and travel expenses.

A Paypal account has been set up. Donations can be made by visiting paypal.com, logging in and using the e-mail address carrie130j@yahoo.com.

Amanda Sokalski has also ordered T-shirts and wristbands and is trying to organize future benefits. More ways to donate are also being set up. For more information on how to help, call Amanda Sokalski at (586) 854-7985.

“We just hope that everyone keeps her in their thoughts and prayers,” Amanda said.

[News & Picture Source]