On Monday night I received a call from Jason Torchinsky’s wife, Sally, who informed me that Jason had suffered what seemed at the time like early stages of a heart attack. With intense chest and stomach pain, Jason had to be take in an ambulance to the local hospital, where he underwent surgery for a tear in his aorta. The Taillight-King is currently recovering, and seems in good spirits.
I’m gonna keep this blog short, because there’s a lot rushing through my mind at the moment. Jason Torchinsky is, of course, way, way more than my coworker, he’s one of my closest friends and a titan in the automotive media world who has made cars fun and approachable in ways that nobody has ever done before. Squid cars? Ham bumpers? Sushi taillights? An entire world themed around taillight gangs? I could go on and on. Jason is the soul of The Autopian, just as he was the soul of the German Lighting Site, but more than that, he’s an amazing, one-of-one human being with an awesome wife, Sally, and fantastic son, Otto. Which is why I’m so glad to hear that Jason is recovering well after surgery.
What happened is something called “Aortic dissection.” Here’s a little primer on this rather serious condition via St. Clair Hospital’s website:
An aortic dissection is a medical emergency. In this condition, a tear occurs in the inner layer of the large blood vessel branching off the heart. This blood vessel is called the aorta. Aortic dissection is most common in men in their 60s and 70s.Symptoms include sudden, severe chest pain that spreads to the neck or down the back and sudden stomach pain. Other symptoms include loss of consciousness, shortness of breath, and stroke symptoms such as trouble seeing, speaking or moving. Treatment includes surgery to fix the aorta and medicines, such as beta blockers.
He’ll be back here blogging crazy taillight blogs before you know it, but until then, he’ll take a nice, long, well-deserved and much-needed break.
We love you, Torch. Get well soon so we can fix your Beetle’s engine. And your F-150’s flywheel. And your Pao’s hood. And the Tiguan’s…Volkswagen-iness. And your RV’s…everything. Actually, forget I mentioned those — you don’t need that stress in your life. Just relax and enjoy the holiday season.
UPDATE: You can support Jason HERE.
Holy shit. I just now read the news.
This is what I get for not looking at all the articles on the site every day.
God Bless you Jason. We’re all praying for a speedy recovery.
In order to help Jason, I want to make you all aware how insane medical expenses are, I, had a heart attack 3 years ago (I know, not exactly the same as what Jason had) but nonetheless I was rushed to the ER and had a Stent inserted, which thankfully saved my life but I was aghast when I received the hospital bill for my 2 day stay in the hospital was $66,000.00! Thankfully my BCBS covered a majority of it but Jason might not be as fortunate. So, help him out of you can.
I was saddened to hear of this, but encouraged about the recovery. Best wishes to Mr. Torchinsky & family.
Best wishes, Mr. Torchinsky. May all of your troubles be in the rear view mirror.
If anything comes back to him regarding his trip to the hospital, I’m sure we’ll be seeing some article detailing Jason’s wacky ideas on how they could improve ambulances. Glad to hear you got through it and are on the mend! Get well soon, Torch!
Damn it! I turn my back for just a moment and Torch ends up in the shop, up on a lift getting his plumbing fixed. Heal fast & heal well & rest up!
Feel better and glad you are still among the living!
Nothing much to add except another “Get well soon!”
Hey this is a bit common and the surgery proven and very successful. I am sure Jason is in good hands just make sure he rests until healed.
GoFundMe for Jason’s Medical Expenses!
I don’t know how many of you have had to deal with emergency surgery, but it can cost an absolute fortune even with health insurance. Despite living in the rarefied air of North Carolina and experiencing the peak glamour of being an auto-journo, this is going to hit their finances hard. We all love JT, so let’s help now.
Done!
Thank you! 🙂
Not to be that guy….but who is Thad (maybe it’s you, I dunno) and do we have any confirmation of ties to Torch?
Yes, that’s me. As an assurance, DT did get his kitten money. I have no ties to Torch other than as a member and overly enthused fan. If it weren’t for not wanting to bother her with totally unimportant shit like this right now, I would have already asked his wife (via Matt or David) to setup withdrawals. If anyone needs that to happen before donating, I will leave that up to the Autopian powers that be to facilitate it, as I have already been so annoying that I want to crawl into a hole and die from shame.
But again, a sincere, profound, grateful, Thank You to every single person who helps and as always, apologies for the boldness.
Thanks for the reply. Wasn’t accusing you, just seen too many shady gofundme’s.
No, it was a perfectly legit question and I meant to say so before but got distracted. Thank you for keeping eyes on the road.
Well that’s a shit sandwich between the Pao and the aorta. Get well soon!
So it’s the Paorta of shit?
Get well soon – love your writing, so we need you back on the keyboard!
Oh man that’s awful. Jason… I hope you have a full and speedy recovery!
Get better soon Jason! I don’t want you to find out that the Afterlife is your dystopic vision of Pixar’s Cars.
Wow. First the Pao, then the aorta. Man, you’ve had a hell of a November. So glad you’re becoming all right. Get well soon.
All the best, speedy recovery, hard to say anything that’s not a platitude. And take care of yourself!
I hope you get well soon, but I ALSO hope you take as long to rest as your body needs!
Best wishes!
So glad to hear that we didn’t lose Jason to the same killer as John Ritter. Rest up, and hoping you feel better soon!
Not to discount any of the other brilliant people on this site, but Torch is the core of this community. We’re all pulling for you. Let’s go, bud!
So happy to hear you are on the road to recovery, Torch!
You are fortunate to have gotten the correct diagnosis and treatment so quickly.
Aortic dissection is how John Ritter died–he was treated for a heart attack instead of getting surgery to repair the aorta.
Take care of yourself. You don’t know me, but all of you here are important parts of my daily life.
A friend’s husband had this happen a few years ago. Survived. But that makes two people I’m acquainted with and that’s a frighteningly high frequency, as I’m not very social.
Make sure he goes easy on the blinker fluid next time you guys head out to the Corner Light Bar for a, umm, staff meeting, yeah, that’s it!
This is what made me get the sign-in link at work. Working in a hospital and with over 15 ears in the cath lab and heart surgery areas, I have seen some stuff. Best of luck on a speedy recovery Jason. Make sure you listen to and obey the therapists!!!! We all want more taillight weirdness.
For those who want a brief (10 minute) tutorial on aortic dissection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tskOCzz4z1g
Treatment descriptions start about the 8:05 mark.
For those not familiar with it- there are two main treatment options – Aortic graft or Endovascular stent graft. Let’s use a car analogy. The aorta is the fuel line from fule pump to the engine. pretend it has several layers that make up the tubing- dissection is a tear of the inner layer and fuel going into the area between layers. If it gets enough pressure- it can burst the line. An aneurysm would be a weaking in the entire sidewall of the line.
Treatment options- Aortic Graft would be if you open up the engine bay (chest) and did something similar to the hose clamps several people have mentioned – take out the bad section of fuel line and clamp a new section in there. Endo vascular stent graft would be if you took a small tube, pulled one valve, fed the tube through the opening and into the fuel line, then pushed a smaller tube through to the tear in the fuel line and used a balloon to blow up the small tube to seal the tear in the fuel line.
Thank you for that in-depth but relatable explanation!
You are welcome. As part of a previous role, I would talk with groups from elementary school age to college age about what the cath lab does, so I have a number of different analogies depending on audience age. Now after working in more areas of healthcare, I have a whole list of what different doctors are in relation to other jobs. There is a reason orthopedists are called the carpenters of healthcare.
I’m glad they were able to fix the crack in your injector manifold. Be sure to take several slow laps before getting on the throttle. We’re confident it was fixed properly, but don’t want to take any chances with such a unique and valuable classic.
Gotta manage that stress. Speedy recovery!
Get well soon, man!