Bonnett Comes Home With Amnesia After Crash

Neil Bonnett, suffering from severe amnesia as a result of a car race accident Sunday, was back home today, but his wife said full recovery isn’t expected immediately.

Bonnett, 43, suffered a head injury Sunday in a 14-car crash in the TransSouth 500 at Darlington, S.C., a NASCAR stock car race.

After he arrived in Birmingham Monday night in fellow driver Dale Earnhardt’s airplane, Susan Bonnett said his problem is worse than doctors first believed.

“It may be temporary and it may be permanent, but the doctor doesn’t think it will be permanent,” Susan Bonnett said. “It may take a few days, it may take a month, it may take years. He does feel there should be a complete recovery, and we should look forward to that, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”

She said tests showed that the only injury Bonnett suffered was a concussion.

“The doctor told me he took a terrible, terrible lick to the head, and it’s a miracle he doesn’t have any other problems there,” Susan Bonnett said. “He just has the amnesia.”

She said that a doctor in Florence, S.C., sent Bonnett home because there is no treatment for amnesia and he felt that Bonnett’s memory might return more quickly in familiar surroundings.