Top Fuel runner-up “Hot Rod” Fuller underwent successful surgery last Friday to repair a damaged knee that he hurt in Norwalk, Ohio, when he attempted to jump over a fence in the staging lanes. Dr. Vern Prochaska, a noted orthopedic surgeon in Henderson, Nev., performed a total reconstruction of the knee that took nearly three hours to complete.

Top Fuel runner-up “Hot Rod” Fuller underwent successful surgery last Friday to repair a damaged knee that he hurt in Norwalk, Ohio, when he attempted to jump over a fence in the staging lanes. Dr. Vern Prochaska, a noted orthopedic surgeon in Henderson, Nev., performed a total reconstruction of the knee that took nearly three hours to complete.

"It turned out the ACL was totally ruptured and had to be replaced with a donor ACL," Fuller said. "Plus, because I was walking around on it for six months, the medial and lateral tendons were damaged also. It was a real mess." 

Fuller will be on crutches for at least six weeks and it may take up to a year for him to fully recover. 

"The main thing is that my body accepts the donor ACL," Fuller said. "It's pretty wild that we did all that work promoting Donate Life (shareyourlife.org) a few years ago and then I end up needing something myself. We talked about being a donor and how it can help someone else's quality of life and now I'll be living proof of that. I'm glad to be done with it. My knee's been hurting for so long now. I'm not going to have much fun this off-season but by testing I should be feeling great. It's been really cool to receive all the e-mails and calls from everyone. Please let them know I'm doing fine."