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Earnhardt surgery no factor in death

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 22, 2001

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Two doctors familiar with Dale Earnhardt do not believe a 1999 surgery to repair a ruptured disk in the driver's neck played a part in his death Sunday.

Earnhardt died from a basal skull fracture after his car hit the Turn 4 wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500. The injury occurs when a driver's head and neck jolt forward in a high-speed impact.

"It (the surgery) had no role in this accident," said Dr. Charles Branch Jr. of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "It was a high-speed, momentary-loss-of-control issue."

Branch performed the surgery to fuse the C-6 and C-7 vertebrae after Earnhardt injured his neck and back during a crash in March 1999 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"In his case, we used a little plate to help sew the bones still until the bones grow together," Branch said. "We left (the plate) where it was. That's something that's been going on for years."

Earnhardt proclaimed he never had felt better following the surgery, which cured numbness in his left hand and arm and pain in his shoulders.

"I hurt my neck and then I fought it for a couple of years and finally got it fixed," Earnhardt said in January. "I felt a big difference last year. I feel great, physically."

Earnhardt was no stranger to serious crashes. He broke his sternum in a 1996 wreck at Talladega Superspeedway. Two years later he sustained second-degree burns in a pileup at the track.

Earnhardt's most serious crash came during his rookie season in 1979 at Pocono Raceway when he sustained a concussion, heart bruises, a broken collarbone and broken pelvis.

"The only thing is that repeated neck injury and having a fusion as well as advancing age will make your neck a little bit more stiff and limit the motion, but it doesn't really significantly affect the results that might occur in a crash," said Dr. Steve Olvey, a University of Miami neurosurgical specialist and CART medical director.

"I know for a fact that Dale was in extremely good physical condition. He kept himself that way and his neck muscles were very strong. Over time any decrease in flexibility and any weakness as a result of his previous neck surgery, I don't think that had any role in the outcome of the accident."

- Times news researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

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