Polk Middle’s Edwards recovering after motocross accident

Polk County Middle School student Jayce Edwards woke up Monday morning full of questions for his family – all of which they were all too happy to answer.

The eighth grader suffered a serious accident on Saturday while competing in a motocross race at Muddy Creek Raceway in Blountville, Tenn. Edwards, who was knocked unconscious in the crash, was taken to Johnson City Medical Center, where he is resting in the intensive care unit.

Jayce’s parents, Jeff and Candice Edwards, said Monday morning in a post on social media that Jayce awoke early, on his own, and asked if he could go home.

“Ready to stand up and walk! Too soon for that, but is ready,” the post said. “Unbelievable! To come from Saturday, non-responsive, Sunday having to wake him up every hour with some pain and this morning seeing this.

“Jayce Edwards is a very special and strong young man and I’m sure the Lord has something special in store for him to overcome what has taken place since Saturday when he had his accident.”

Michael Keller, Jayce’s cousin who also competed at Muddy Creek, said Jayce had an incident on the second lap of his race in the 85D class, sending him head-first into one of the jumps on the track. Jayce lost his helmet on impact and didn’t regain consciousness for quite some time until after he arrived at the hospital.

“He can talk and knows his family and at one point asked when (he could) go home,” Keller said Sunday evening. “All great signs. The concerns are the small brain bleed the size of a pinhead and the pain he’s having in his head, neck and back.

“He is still going to sleep most of the time and they are having to wake him up. They are going to do a MRI on those areas (Monday) if he gets stable enough.”

Keller said Monday that with Jayce waking up on his own, doctors plan to go ahead and do the MRI.