Friday surgery for Merriman--'I will be back'

June 18, 2010

Aaron Merriman was scheduled to have surgery Friday morning at the Cleveland Clinic to repair his broken left elbow he suffered in a June 11 race accident at The Meadows. Merriman told harnessracing.com late Thursday afternoon that the accident�and injuries that also included two broken wrists�has taken its toll on him emotionally as well as physically.

�I just don�t feel good and am in a lot of pain,� said Merriman, who is the leading dash-winning driver in North America this year and currently leads the standings at Northfield Park and is fourth at The Meadows. �There is zero timetable (for my return), and that�s one thing that�s really bothering me. I�m just hoping to get better as soon as possible without pushing the issue.

�The minute I can be back driving�and mark my words�I will be back. There�s nothing that is going to keep me away; I will do everything in my power to get back to racing.�

Merriman said one thing that has helped him get through the ordeal is the outpouring of support, including hundreds of messages left from his 2,000-plus friends on Facebook.

�I really appreciate everybody�s sincerity and concern. It�s meant a lot,� he said. �A lot of people have said a lot of nice, nice things. It almost makes me want to cry and believe me, I�m not much of an emotional person. This has really, really hit me hard.�

Merriman expressed dismay that the injury has derailed his quest to accomplish a major goal in 2010: win the national dash title.

�I just really thought this was going to be the year I could wrap up the dash title,� said Merriman, who won a career high of 706 races last year and was on pace to top 800 wins this year with 355 victories before the spill. �The last couple years it looked it was feasible and something I really wanted to do. This year I was not going to take an extra day here and there off, I was going to race a full schedule.�

As for the accident itself that has left Merriman sidelined for the second time in five years�he was out nearly four months in late 2005 after breaking several bones in his right hand in a spill at Northfield Park�the 31 year old said he remembers everything having never lost consciousness. Still, he said he hasn�t watched the replay and isn�t sure when that will happen.

�He started making a break; he took two little steps like a horse making a break and he just dropped with no warning,� Merriman said of his horse Sound Dragin�s break nearing the three quarters and subsequent falling to the track. �And the way he fell, it catapulted me back into the field. It pushed me right back into the fire.

�I haven�t watched the wreck, but everybody tells me the same thing�that it could have been way worse. I never blacked out, I wished I did.�

Three other drivers were involved in the accident�Ray Paver, Tony Hall and Kyle Bolon�but none were seriously injured, nor were any of the horses. Merriman was taken immediately to a local hospital where surgery was performed to repair one of his broken wrists.

�I had right wrist surgery done two hours after the accident because it was a double-compound fracture. That had to be done immediately,� he said. �The doctor told me after that she was patting herself on the back because of how well that went, which was a blessing.�

As for Friday�s elbow surgery, Merriman said the doctors have told him they were going into uncharted territory.

�The doctor (at the Cleveland Clinic) told me to only worry about my elbow because it�s going to be a problem,� he said. �I�m not even sure if they know how they�ll fix it. They�ll know a lot more when they open me up. They said the best-case scenario would be that I�d have 80-percent use of my elbow, which I don�t need any more than that to race.�

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