Rockstar Husqvarna’s Dean Wilson is a bright personality in the pits, so when he went down with a crash at the St. Louis Supercross—and took a footpeg to the butt—he of course joked about it in his update videos from the hospital. Turns out this is no laughing matter, because Dean lost a lot of blood and in the aftermath of it all, he’s struggling quite a bit with his health.
It’s not always tons of cash and groupies when it comes to being a factory rider like Dean-O, sometimes you have to go through some pretty rough moments as well. Dean joined Steve Matthes, Kris Keefer, and Paul Perebijnos on the PulpMX Show last Monday to talk about his injury and more.
Racer X Online: Rough couple weeks for you. We saw the crash into the scoring tower out of the whoops in St. Louis. Tell us what it has been like. How many surgeries have you gone through? How you doing?
Dean Wilson: I’ll be honest, pretty miserable, even right now. I’m very uncomfortable. I lay on my side and then that gets sore, then I lay on my other side and then I’ll stand up. Then I go to stand up and I get really lightheaded because I lost a lot of blood, but I didn’t get a blood transfusion. So, I think it’s called your hemoglobin levels, and I think that’s normally at like 16 or 15 and I’m at an 8. So, Dr. Bodnar [Dr. John “Doc” Bodnar] says I have to naturally let my blood build back up, but it’s pretty gnarly. Every time I go to stand up, I almost faint and collapse. I’m pale white, chalk white. I’m feeling like shit. It’s terrible, man. It’s just like my body feels terrible. I have no appetite to eat. It’s pretty rough.
So, what happened was, I was going into the second lap of the first race and I was literally hitting the whoops straight. It was fine. Then I just hit one edge and it shot me left and everyone saw it, I hit that thing, foot peg up the ass. So, I was laying there on my back and I just feel blood rushing. It was really, really warm. I didn’t know it was blood. I didn’t know what it was. Then I get up and the Alpinestars medic guys were freaking out, like, “Dean, you’re bleeding a lot.” They’re trying to patch it up and whatever. They’re wrapping me. I’m glad that I don’t care already, but I got my hands on these Tuff Blox and my ass is to the full crowd! They pull my pants down. My two ass cheeks are just pointing at the crowd. I didn’t even care, though. There’s blood everywhere. They’re pretty desperate to try and stop the bleeding. So, they’re wrapping me up. Then I can’t run across the track because I hurt my hands and I hurt my knee. I can’t just run across. They’re like, “There’s five minutes left.” I’m standing there. Then two minutes… so finally, we get across the track, and they’re like, “You either lay on your belly on this stretcher or just go on your knees on the seat.” I’m like, all right, I’ll go on my knees on the seat. I’m feeling like such a bozo. On my knees, ass pointing to the crowd once again! I’m not in a lot of pain at this point because my adrenaline is high. I don’t really know the damage because I can’t see.
They’re telling me I need to get an ambulance. You know me. I’m thinking, that’s expensive. I’m like, “Bodnar, I’m not going in the ambulance.” He was pretty serious. He’s like, “Dean, you need to.” I was like, all right. So then, I get into the ambulance and we get going. The guy is like, “I’m going to give you some fentanyl.” I’m like, fentanyl? All I’m thinking of is people that overdose. So, we get to the hospital and they were all waiting for me. I have six doctors. Good thing once again I’m not that shy, but my c**k and balls are out! I’m butt-ass naked on this thing! I’ve got five doctors poking at my ass, cleaning it, squeezing it. Their hands are everywhere. It was serious, though. I didn’t really care, but there was just blood everywhere. The doctors were super cool. Then they kind of got me a little bit situated. Then the one nurse was like, “There’s another rider coming. He’s pretty messed up.” I’m like, oh shit, I wonder who that is?
Then I’m laying there and here comes Kyle Peters into the same room as me. Then all those doctors that are with me are all over him. So anyway, they looked after Kyle and I’m like, “Kyle, is that you?” He’s like, “Yeah, Deano.” I’m like, “What’s going on?” We’re just talking! So, it was miserable. Then I go in for a surgery right away and they realized in the surgery I hit an artery. Then they finished that surgery and went into another surgery where I went to a different department to fix the artery. They did that. Then I was just laying on my side for three days, not moving. Then I had to go for another surgery where they kind of just went back in there to look and see how everything was and re-clean it. Nothing too crazy. It’s just a miserable and very uncomfortable injury. I’m sharing my room with this 61-year-old who just had a hip replacement. This is already miserable, and this guy can’t actually physically get up and go to the toilet. So, he’s shitting in a bucket in my room and I can hear him physically taking a shit. I feel bad for him. It’s not his fault. But I’m laying on my side and I can’t even cover my nose. It’s so bad, and it lingers in the room for so long. Then two hours later he’s doing another one. It was like that for three days. Then the one night, he takes a shit in the bucket and the doctor forgets to take it out and it sat in the room all night. So, I’m just in there suffering. I’ve already got this and then I’m like, “Oh, my God.”
How deep is the cut?
Ten inches deep. It’s weird because obviously a foot peg is like four inches. That’s the problem is that it’s so deep. Even right now, it’s not closed. They left the thing completely open because they said if they closed it, it would just be a big gap and a big space in there and fluid would fill up and add a chance of infection. So they’re doing the old-school healing way of from the inside of out.
Your wife Sarah is in there packing the wound. Great Instagram updates, by the way. Sarah is in there helping out…how long are you out for?
She is the best. She’s really good help. So, we’ve just got to let it heal from the inside out, so that’s that, pretty much. I also need to focus on my blood stuff too that’s going on right now.
How long…? I really don’t know. The way I feel right now, not very soon because I don’t feel good physically. Also, I got hematoma in there. So, I think that’s what’s causing me a lot of pain. I feel like my tailbone is broken, but they swore my tailbone is not broken.
Everything okay with the butthole?
Yeah. They were very concerned that it tore into the anus. I went into surgery and she was like, “You may wake up with a bag out of your belly, and you’ll have to shit in a bag for four months.” My eyes weren’t even open yet and I’m just feeling my body looking for a bag! I didn’t feel one so I’m like, Thank God! That was their biggest concern was if I ripped into that, and I didn’t. So, that was really good.
I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, I don't think. This is terrible.
Yeah. Uncomfortable. It’s painful. I just want to sit normal, and I can’t. Anyway, all that happened, and then I got to come home, and the travel home was so bad. I was in so much pain. Then I was chalk white. I was almost fainting everywhere. I had to sit on the airplane for two hours.
How do you sit? Do they give you a donut or something?
I sit on a donut and then I had a couple painkillers just to try and help me get through it.
One thing I wondered at the race, we’ve seen more red flags than ever before. They don’t hesitate to red flag it. They did for Kyle Peters. Somebody who was over there told me there was so much blood. I don’t understand. Where was the red flag?
I don't know. At the time, I didn’t know how bad it was. Obviously, it could have been really bad. Good thing there were doctors on deck. What if I was racing a GNCC and I was out in the middle of the woods or something? That would be super scary. I think they should have thrown a red flag and got me out of there quicker to lose less blood, because I lost a lot of blood. But maybe just because I had my pants on… I don't know. I think a red flag would have been… I read some comments and people were like, “Well, he was off the track…” That’s not the problem. The problem was that I was bleeding out.
You go into the hospital for something like this, is this something that they give you the option to have a transfusion, or just didn’t get that option at all?
They talked about it. The doctor was like, “We might give you one.” Doc Bodnar said the same thing. They like you rather to build it back up yourself than to give you a transfusion. I don't know why. I actually have an appointment tomorrow with a doctor and we’ll see what he says.
You’re fresh into this one, but you’ve injuries in your career before. Is this the worst thing you’ve dealt with? Is this the worst one?
I don't know. Definitely one of the most uncomfortable. Dislocating my hip that time was the most pain, for sure, and uncomfortable. But once they popped that thing back in, it was nice. This one is kind of just a constant ass throb. You just can’t get comfortable. That’s the only thing.
What about if you take a dump right now? Is it hard to take a dump?
Not too bad. I’ve got so much bandages and stuff, the protocol is I’ll try and wipe my best, and then I lay on my bed. Sarah rips the bandages off because it gets all over the bandages. She gives it a good wipe and then puts on fresh bandages. She is seriously the MVP.
So, we’ve got a little routine going. Let’s just hope this thing heals up. It sucks because not a lot of guys were staying healthy. I’m the guy that usually never stays healthy, and I was staying healthy. I was knocking out top tens. I’m like, this is fine, this is perfect. Seventeen rounds, I’m happy with that. Then just four rounds to go and this happens.
Ten inches. It’s that deep? How wide is it?
It’s about four inches wide, five inches wide. The deepness of it is the problem.
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We know you’ve had some big get-offs, and then you’re doing good and the ball is starting to roll, and then you find yourself with your face down, ass up by the whoops. Are you just like “Why does this keep happening? What is going on?”
Yeah. This is the thing with the sport. When everything is going good, you don’t even think about the bad side of it. Then when this shit happens and you’re going through all the old bullshit that you always have went through when you’re injured, that’s what sucks it out of you. That’s what makes you make those hard decisions like, do I really want to keep doing this? It’s always tough laying there. I’ll get through this one. This one’s not as bad, but I’ll be fine. There’s two sides to the coin. When things are going good, it’s the best. I love this sport. Then when it’s bad like this, it’s like… But it’s part of it. You know that’s what comes with the trade.
I don’t always like to have riders on talking about injuries, some guys don’t want to do that, but sometimes it’s good to show the fans what you’re going through The things that you guys go through are pretty gnarly, all of you guys. Alex Ray right now, he’s got numbness in his hand. One wrist is still broken. He’s trying to race. He needs money. Stuff like that. You have no idea what this guy is going through. There’s so many of you guys out there that go through this stuff.
I know. It’s tough. It’s always cool to talk stuff like this. That’s why us riders can always have such a good… We can always talk about the things that we experience as racers that you can’t relate with fans or anything. When you’re watching a supercross… like, at press day at Seattle. I was watching press day. I was watching this rhythm section coming towards me. I can’t see any of the ruts, and these guys are getting kind of squirrelly. You’re thinking, “These guys are struggling through that section.” Then you see, when you’re actually on the bike, the ruts are so gnarly out there. The tracks that we race on are so gnarly and being in the stands you don’t really see it. I always like to go high up so you can see the ruts and stuff. It’s hard to explain. Then even just the pressure side of things when you’re on a factory team, and you’ve got expectations and then you’re not meeting those expectations. Then the vibe is kind of weird, but you’re trying your best and you’re falling short of your goals. It’s so gnarly. It’s tough. But, it's what you sign up for and sometimes it goes good, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Wilson calls into the PulpMX Show around the 15:15 mark in episode #501 below:
