BUXTON – Hoping to be home from the hospital later this month, a NASCAR fan is recovering from multiple injuries he received in a second-story fall in February while getting ready to watch the Daytona 500 on TV.

But before then, Doug Arnold of Buxton plans to attend a benefit in his honor on Saturday.

“I’m getting a furlough for a few hours,” Arnold said Tuesday from his room at the Brighton Campus of Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Arnold, 49, broke his spine in two places, two ribs and right shoulder, and also punctured a lung when he slipped and plunged 12 feet from his garage attic to a concrete floor on Feb. 26. His sister-in-law, Sundae Fallen, said he also suffered swelling of the brain for a while.

The Roost on Chicopee Road in Buxton is hosting a benefit from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, April 14, to aid Arnold and his wife, Jean Arnold. Dan Giroux is the DJ for the event, which includes raffles and 50/50.

The Arnolds are parents of a son, Devan Arnold, who is in college.

A mechanic, Arnold had planned to watch the Daytona 500 on TV with friends. He had climbed up into his garage attic to retrieve some NASCAR memorabilia at 11 a.m. on the day of the race.

Arnold worked for Prime Ford in Saco, and he also enjoyed working on cars at home in his own garage.

“He loved to watch the races,” his sister-in-law, Sundae Fallen, said.

Fallen said Arnold was wearing mud boots that day when he went aloft in his garage and slipped, falling through a trap door to the garage floor below.

Arnold, although seriously hurt, mustered the strength to call his wife on a cell phone for help. Buxton Rescue took him to Maine Medical Center, where he spent his 49th birthday.

She said her brother-in-law’s spine is pinned together and he still doesn’t have feeling from his waist down. A wheelchair ramp has been installed at his home.

And while it turned out this year’s Daytona wasn’t held Feb. 27 because of rain, Arnold’s favorite race driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished second in the classic th next day.

Arnold hopes to be home from rehab by Wednesday, April 25.

“I’m trying to be positive and move ahead,” Arnold said. “I’m doing well under the circumstances.”

Doug Arnold, shown with his wife Jean, is recovering from injuries sustained in a fall in the garage at his Buxton home. A benefit to aid the family is Saturday.