On November 14th, 2009 the newest member of the AFMXA (American Freestyle Motorcross Association), Jeff “OX” Kargola was in a serious accident while pre-running for the Baja 1000 in San Felipe, Mexico. Ox crashed, smashed his belly (probably with the bars digging in) and drove his head into the ground. He says he “saw a bush shadow that may have been hiding a rock”. His front tire missed it, but his back tire hit it sending him into his crash at probably 50mph. He isn’t too sure, but he knows he was riding down the highway after the crash through military check points without stopping. OX saved himself. Riding alone, he got up and rode to the highway and towards San Felipe, a 45 mile ride. Eventually he got dizzy and was going to crash on the pavement and stopped in the middle of the highway. Some locals stopped and put him in their car and one of them rode his bike to SF.
At 11:22am the AFMXA received word that Jeff was in a clinic with a laundry list of injuries and we went to work! Medjet assist was called immediately as Dr. Gus Gialamas stayed in constant contact with the Doctors at the clinic in Mexico. By 2:45pm Medjet was in the air and Jeff was on his way home to be admitted to Scripps Mercy in San Diego for proper treatment. He landed in San Diego at 5:03pm and was in surgery by 7:53pm to stop internal bleeding.
Because OX is a member of the AFMXA he knew he could contact us and we were able to assist him in a life-threatening situation. The AFMXA will continue to support him and look forward to his full recovery!
Although his medjet flight was covered by his membership (had he not had it this would have cost him between $40-60k) his hospital stay and surgeries are not. We are currently taking any donations on AFMXA.org to help support our friend and team member.
-AFMXA
Founded in 2009, AFMXA, is a not-for-profit that represents the interests of America’s Freestyle Motocross industry. It is designed to assist with organizing the sport in a way that will inspire it to grow. AFMXA is a collection of professional, recreational, and corporate members
Big thanks to Metal Mulisha’s blog for keeping us updated!
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