Our Own Jason Torchinsky Had Emergency Heart Surgery But He’s Going To Be OK Because He’s Strong And We Love Him And He Has Many More Taillight Blogs To Write

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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.
This morning, Sally asked Jason if he wants to say anything to readers. In classic Torch shape, he hit us with something silly: “Don’t neglect your aortas.”
Profound.
“Also, he misses them and he’s looking forward to being back,” Sally told me after mentioning that Jason is up and walking, though doesn’t remember what happened.

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.

358 thoughts on “Our Own Jason Torchinsky Had Emergency Heart Surgery But He’s Going To Be OK Because He’s Strong And We Love Him And He Has Many More Taillight Blogs To Write

  1. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! You know there was that study everyone talked about a few months ago about how men think about ancient Rome daily. That doesn’t apply to me, but weirdly I always think in certain situations what would Jason Torchinsky describe this as using his dictionary-opening word salad. Of course I have neither the vocabulary or the mental capacity to envision a pithy or witty examination of whatever situation is in front of me the way you do, but it still makes me think.

  2. I was going to make a joke about Torch being ahead of the curve, but instead, I’ll take the high road and wish him a speedy recovery. Looking forward to seeing you and your Pao back on the road!

  3. I’m very glad to hear that Jason is going to be okay! He was the reason I started reading the Old Site, and he’s the reason I switched over to Autopian (nothing personal, the rest of you).

    I thought of him earlier today, when FB showed me a graphic about the evolution of Renault taillights, and I was stunned that it wasn’t a Torch posting.

  4. Get well soon and take it easy. Don’t let the stress of poorly designed lighting get to you. After all, that’s why they exist. I don’t have much time to get this out, but I uncovered a conspiracy started by a cabal in th

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