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.
Get well soon, Torch! Can’t wait to see your next post. Plus, you’re 100% right about the Veyron.
Get well quick, Jason!!!
Get well Torch! Take your time coming back – the body needs time to heal. There will be lots of time to dive into the minutia of the automotive weirdness when you’re 100%.
Aortic dissection stories don’t always have happy endings. I’m glad this one does.
It’s good to hear the docs caught it in time and Torch is already up and moving around. Here’s to a quick recovery and many more taillight tales.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a relaxed holiday season! Don’t forget to light them candles for Hanukkah and go easy on the latkes. Ignore my “nom-de-internet,” I’m a 3rd generation Polish-Ukrainian Jew from NYC. The name came about because (true story) a gentleman in Manhattan once mistook me for a catholic priest from Puerto Rico. He was apologetic, but I took it as a complement.
Torch, glad you were able to receive prompt medical attention and make it out the other end of the tunnel. Hope you have a speedy & smooth recovery!
Oof, that’s extremely frightening. Here’s to a speedy recovery, and take care of yourselves one and all.
Scary stuff. Wishing Torch all the best for his recovery.
Oof. Scary. Glad he had good emergency services and is recovering.
Here’s hoping for a speedy and uneventful recovery!
Get well soon! We need you out here fighting the good fight of the tail light!
Does the ChangLi have enough juice to restart a heart? Hoping for a fast recovery.
This is why you should always carry a jug of Start, Ya Bastard with you
Oh man. Get well soon Torch. 🙁
Kudos to Sally, who even as they were hauling Jason out and her brain is going Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!, remembered you’d need a picture for the story.
We’ll be waiting for ya, Torch! I don’t think you’re big enough to swap a LS short block into so you gotta get well soon.
I would not be surprised if Otto were the photographer. Kids always want pictures of their parents in compromised positions for later use. Baby picture payback.
Glad to hear it was caught in time and correctable. Fast recovery, Torch!
If Otto was*
Get well soon, Torch!
Everything below, seconded, thirded and fourthded.
Holy crap! Get well soon, Torch. Take it easy. Smell the roses. Admire the taillights of the season.
Get well soon!
Get well Torch!
I hope you get better soon jason.
Wow.
I wish you the best, and a speedy recovery.
But I hope that Sally and Otto are doing well too, and that they are getting support from family/friends too.
While Jason was leisurely asleep, getting dosed up with The Good Stuff, I’m sure that his family was very conscious, and very worried.
All three of you take care.
Whoa that’s serious! Get well soon because I need some more taillight articles. I’d like you to explore some oddities like the hearse that I just saw Rosalynn Carter was in. It was a converted XT6, I think, but clearly they must have decided something with the taillights because a car with a trunk became a station wagon. And surely it needs some discussion on if they did it the cheap way or if they actually did some styling. And surely it needs to be judged. Seriously, you have created a unique community and it is too soon to leave us, and it sounds like you’re in good hands. I’m sure the team can function without you, but it appears from my vantage that you are the glue for this team — the quirky, the natural curiosity, and probably the team fun guy. Best to you!
I’m such a nerd
Saw this comment last night and was excited (and a bit puzzled as I didn’t remember the Carters as being at all car enthusiasts). You see, years ago I bought a partially disassembled 87 Subaru XT. It was a milestone as my first fuel injected car—and also the first time I did more than just replace a part following the manual. Later I saw one on the forum that had been converted from a sedan into a wagon by grafting the rear top of an S-10 Tahoe on.
So I immediately went to Subaru, not Cadillac. Lol is appropriate here
Wishing you a speedy recovery Sir! I’ll keep you and your family in my prayers.
Holy hell, Jason, I’m glad you’re still with us! Please take all the time you need to heal up, we’ll be waiting patiently for your next taillight take.
Get well soon Jason! I’ve been reading your stuff since high school, when I was really starting to explore the world of car enthusiasm for the first time and discovering a love of weird cars. Your writing was an oasis for me when most other websites and enthusiasts mocked or hated weird cars, and I got so much joy reading about them from someone who unironically loves such things.
Y’all have created a unique community that champions all different types of cars, no matter how unusual they are, and I love that. Feels like enjoying weird cars isn’t as uncommon as it used to be, and you’ve done a lot to make that so. I do hope you’ll still be here to keep doing what you do for years to come, your writing is something special and it always makes me happy.