Reigning Dakar Bikes Champion Toby Price Suffers Seizure During Crash Recovery

Toby Price's recovery from his Dakar crash has been complicated by a seizure, believed to be caused by a blood clot in his lung.

The reigning Dakar bikes winner crashed out of the event on Stage 4, the impact of the shunt breaking his femur in four places.

Following the crash Price was airlifted first to base and then to La Paz in Bolivia, where he was transported by road to hospital.

He has since undergone surgery to repair the broken femur, and currently continues to recover in hospital – although according to a story on his personal website the recovery process has been complicated by both language difficulties and a seizure, suspected to be caused by a blood clot in his lung.

"I've had a couple of rough nights here in La Paz," Price wrote.

"The language barrier has been extremely challenging, and I suffered a seizure which has rocked me a little bit. But the specialist is working hard to target the trigger to this and they are suspecting this was due to a blood clot in my lung.

"In saying that, I've had a couple of Australian friends who were traveling with the Dakar rally who were kind enough to visit, the team also visited yesterday was was incredible of them."

Price also opened up on the crash that wiped him out of the Dakar, claiming that he believes it was sparked by contact with a rock.

"All I can remember is hitting something hard, it was in a river bed and I'm sure as anything it would have been a rock," he recalled.

"The last bit I remember is been face down into the ground after flying through the air and seeing the rocks go under me pretty quick. I landed and pretty much was just in a daze for a while.

"I'm not sure time frame-wise but some people came running over and basically just helped me and checked if I was alright and I remember seeing Paulo Goncalves above me doing the same.

"I'm not too sure how the long the helicopter took to get me but I knew I broke my leg by then. It started to get painful and my leg wouldn't move, so it was a helicopter ride back to the stage base, an airplane ride back to La Paz and then into an ambulance – but the road was that rough I needed to get strapped in and have another injection and that's all I remember."

Speaking of his recovery, Price says his first priority is to get back to Australia. From there, he hopes to be back on a bike within the next four months.

"The plan is to get me up on my feet in the next 24 hours and take a walk on my leg," he wrote.

"If all goes well we can start to plan my trip back home to Australia and begin my rehabilitation.

"It's going to be a long road back to 100 per cent, but one thing for sure is I know I need to be back on the KTM motorcycle in four months – so I will be doing all I can to make this happen."

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