For those of you who don't know yet, Jeff Creech "Milkman" who owns Carolina Auto Masters and is one of the best LT1 & LS1 PCM tuners around broke his back in two places when he fell off an elevated dyno while tuning cars during his trip to Dallas, TX.

To give you a little insight (for those who don't know), Jeff's own Dynojet is an in-ground model, so he's used to being able to walk around the car freely.

Here is an email from Jeff explaining what happened and how he's doing:
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Here's a generic account of what happened, so I don't have to type it like 300 times for everyone. The weekend of November 14th I went to Dallas to tune some cars. Everything was going great. I was having a good time, all the tuning customers were happy, it was a good thing. People who saw me working there Friday and Saturday wanted some of that for themselves, so
they talked me and David Houser (the owner of the shop) into a Sunday tuning day as well. The dyno there is above ground, and sits about 4.5' off the concrete floor. It's attached to a 4 post lift, so you back the car on the lift, lift it up and back it onto the dyno.

Sunday afternoon, at about the end of tuning the first car of the day, I was standing on one side of the lift platform and had my head under a car and without thinking at all stepped to the other side of the car without thinking about it, I fell down 4.5' almost flat on my back. After much screaming and then some time settling down, we decided to go to the urgent care place around the corner. After being assured that there was no neurological damage, they took X rays and I got the first diagnosis. Broken
spinal recesses of L3 and L4 vertebrae, left side. All your muscles and tendons and stuff attach to the spinal recesses, and lots of nerves go through them too. Luckily, there was no nerve damage, and like when you break a toe or a finger, there's little they can do, they can set it or put it in a brace. The Doc in Dallas cleared me to fly and American Airlines was super nice to me, not as nice as Ed Loutherback and Jason and Mel McCall, but still really nice. So Monday I flew back to RDU, John Marchant picked me up at the airport and took care of me until my Grandparents could get here.

Basically, I'm getting a little better every day and once I get comfortable in any position, either sitting, standing or even lying down I'm ok until I have to move or until I cough, then it hurts really, really bad. (That's with the pain meds, without them, which while I'm writing this I'm off them so I'm somewhat coherent, when I'm "comfortable" there's a steady pain that's not horrible, but not fun either. I'm taking them again in a few minutes.)

Tuesday I went to see a specialist at Triangle Orthopedics who basically echoed what I already heard in Dallas, gave me some feedback on the recovery process and gave me stronger pain drugs. She only upgraded me to Percocet (from Vicoden), not wanting to go to Oxycotten. I had an MRI on Wednesday, and true to form of my ability to fall asleep anywhere, I fell asleep in the machine. They said I was the first patient that day they
didn't have to re-do anything I was perfectly still. This was at 3pm! I do not have the results back as of Friday am, but she really didn't expect to find anything, she just wanted to make absolutely sure, as well as to have better pics to work from. I'm really happy I got to see so nice a Doc so quickly.

The prognosis is a full recovery in 12-16 weeks, but I'll probably never lift anything heavy again. The toughest time will be the next 3-4 weeks. And John Marchant will be helping me at the shop, and anyone else that wants to pop by, I have a million projects I could use help on. I'll do some stuff the week of Thanksgiving, maybe. And should be back tuning on a "regular schedule" starting 11/30-12/1.

I have to tell you, in this season of thanksgiving, I've got so much to be thankful for. The accident could have left me paralyzed or I could have easily had head injuries. It could have happened early in the weekend and the people Dallas might not have gotten to see what I can do for them. I could not have the kind of friends I have. People who have dropped everything to help me and who have called, written and instant messaged words of well wishing. I am very blessed.

Pop me a line, I'll keep you posted with my forward progress, milestones like being able to pick something up off the floor. Or cough without screaming. :-)

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Jeff Creech, Chief Dynoboy, Carolina Auto Masters
'95 T/A "got milk?" 383-LT4, 418/515 rwhp/rwtq, 11.44@118.4
'96 Impala SS, 256/318 rwhp/rwtq, 14.66@94 "An all LT1 fleet!"
www.carolinaautomasters.com and www.gotmilkracing.com

 

Yea, I've been talking to him off and on this week...he seems to be doing better and will be back in the shop on a limited basis this week Will probably go up there either tommorrow or some other time this week to BS/hangout/help out if needed. Anyone feel free to drop in and chew the fat

Lets all hope he makes a quick and relatively painless recovery...

D.

 

Wow, that really sucks. I'm glad to hear that Jeff should make what is pretty much a full recovery! Keep us updated.

 

saw this over on HPJ..
hope he gets well soon

 

hope all goes well jeff! (hope you are reading)

drink a few redheaded ***** with those percs and you will feel a lot better!

 

Anything new on how he's feeling?

 

damn, i'm just now finding out about this

glad hes ok!

 

I just saw this, sorry.

I talked to him this morning on the phone. He's feeling quite a bit better. Still sore and some pain when he's off the meds, but over all he's doing a lot better. He had a dyno day this past Sat. He got pretty sore, but did okay as I understand it (I didn't attend).

He's on the mend and ready to start making HP for everyone again

 

Well thats great news then. I'm glad to see its not going to keep him down for the count

 

Well, just had a CFB dyno day at his shop this past Saturday. Dynoed 20 cars in about 8 hours. He was doing pretty well at the beginning of the day, but as it got late it seemed that all of the running around was beginning to take its toll, and he was definitely ready to leave at 6pm

He seems to be doing a lot better than he was though, thats for sure. I'm sure he'll be 100% again here soon he is back to pretty much regular hours at the shop now.