Blake Spriggs nearly lost his life in an horrific fall in January in which he suffered multiple fractures, severe organ damage and bruising to the brain
A well known jockey has announced his retirement from the saddle after being told he could die if he sustained another head injury. Blake Spriggs, 33, who over a 16 year career has ridden nearly 700 winners, almost lost his life in an horrific fall in January when the horse he was riding clipped the heels of another rival and came down during a race at Moruya in Australia.
He was airlifted to hospital along with another jockey seriously injured in the same incident, Beany Panya. She underwent spinal surgery and has yet to return to race riding.
Spriggs, whose partner is reality TV star KC Osborne, who rose to fame on the show Married At First Sight, was in a critical condition for several days.
He had suffered a fractured left forearm and collarbone, dislocated left elbow, multiple rib fractures, both lungs collapsed, haemorrhaging to his liver, his kidneys shut down and he had bruising to the brain.
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“Essentially, I was on the track drowning in my own blood but the paramedics saved my life,” Spriggs told Racenet . “I was rushed to hospital and KC was told to prepare for the worst as they were not sure I was going to make it.
“I don’t have any memory of that as I was heavily sedated for about two weeks. When they tried to bring me out of sedation the machines would start going off so they had to keep putting me back under.”
He continued: “I realised I was in a bad way but the doctors and nurses at Canberra Hospital were amazing,” he said. “I almost died doing my job and they saved mine doing theirs. It says a lot about these people.”
Spriggs has been told it could take up to three years for his brain to heal and has accepted his neurosurgeon’s advice not to return to the saddle.
“I have micro-bleeds on the brain and my neurologist advised me if I sustained another concussion it would basically kill me,” Spriggs said.
“It puts everything into perspective. I was walking into that appointment with the theory I would not be riding again anyway. But that advice has left me with no thought of whether I should try to return.
“Now I look at it like my son, Brooklyn, gets a father and that’s the most important thing. I nearly wasn’t here, I was as close as you get to going without going.”