… and then everything changed.

Posted by Christian on August 25, 2010

What Happened…

Last Thursday, the 10th of June, I left home at around 7:20am and headed out my driveway and started down the road on my usual route to work. I went through the roundabout and past the shops, in my peripheral, I saw a car leaving a side street about 75m ahead, I set up my brakes but the car slowed right down and appeared to have seen me. I released the brakes and grabbed the bars again

…. out he came, into the middle of the lane… back on the brakes… front has locked up… BAM! Over the car… sliding down the road… lots of bits and pieces everywhere … seeing stars … I stopped sliding a metre or so into the oncoming lane, thank god no cars were there. Lots of pain from several places, I get up (quickly) and stagger over to the curb where the driver has started parking. My bike is lifeless in the middle of the road. My left wrist really hurts, everything else is bearable. The guy comes over, says he didn’t see me, I’m only partially listening. He seems upset.

A lady who was taking her kids to work hops out of her car to my assistance (Angel #1), a car with 2 (German?) guys stop to help (Angel #2 and #3, respectively), a scooter rider stops to help cars get around my bike (Angel #4.) Angel #1 (or A1 as typing is hard) helps me remove my helmet (stupid, like getting off the road, but no pain in neck, head or back) and helps me get my left glove off. Ooooh baby. She’s busted pretty bad. Bone has come out the side, my hand is perhaps .5″ off center via a strange ’step’ in my arm. Its already very swollen. A1 shows me scars on her wrist where it was reconstructed after a bike accident a few years ago. Ergh. After unsuccessfully trying to move my bke off the road, A2 and A3 come to check on me and after that, they leave. Thank you!

The driver has called my wife and A1 has called Towies and the Ambos. The Ambos are here pretty quick, Bill and Cam, they make a splint and give me a plastic thing to suck. Makes it a bit better but still very sore. Cams been an Ambo for 10 years, loves his job. Bill is more quiet, only 4 years in this gig, he’s driving.

Been at the hospital for a few hours, already given a blood sample for tests (including blood alcohol) and had a little bit of morphine when I go for X-Rays and CT. Not much is said to me about the results and even when the registrar comes around, not a lot of info is provided. I go for surgery at about 5pm and am back in my room at 9:30pm to see my best friend, my dad, becs dad and bec before I crash for the night.

The next day I feel a lot of pain and ‘grinding’ noises in my wrist. I go for more scans. When the surgeon finally comes to see me, she explains that my wrist was like ‘mashed potato’ and has been reconstructured with plates, bolts and pins. She finds it hilarious that they overlooked the length of the screws and pins they used and now these screws are poking out the other end of my bone and hitting things inside my arm.

I demand a transfer to Royal North Shore Hospital where my hand surgeon (from a previous injury) works. I stay at RNSH for almost 2 days before they cut me open again to fix me. My hand surgeon explains that I have no carteledge left in my wrist and they’ll do what they can to make it better.

I’m at home now. Its been a crazy week. I cant do anything. Holding a tshirt makes my hand feel like it’ll fall off. I have an appointment with my surgeon tomorrow to get some scans and a new cast. Long term prognosis is unknown but I am very prone to getting arthritis due to having no cartledge. I am super worried. I already have a hand with 30% functionality on the right, I cant afford to have any long term problems with my left hand/arm.

My riding is done. I wont get on a bike again. If I’d hit my head….
Car drivers simply cant be trusted, its not the rider, its the driver.

My bike is dead. The whole front end is bent and out of shape, the frame looks bent, my bars are bent and levers broken, I’m even missing a peg. It was a great bike, I’ll miss her.

And then?

That was written the week after my accident. I am still having lots of issues with my wrist, I have very limited movement and lots of pain still. My hand surgeon has referred to my wrist on several occasions as a ‘bag of bones’ as there were just so many fractures. I am not yet back at work full time although this week I start doing 2 days in the office. My recovery period is unknown, the only certainty is that my wrist will never recover fully, I will always have limited movement.

John, the driver of the Falcon, is paying me monthly to reimburse me for the damage to my gear and the cost of my bike. He will have this paid off by Christmas, I hope.

Here are some pics of my bike and my gear. I simply cannot stress how important it was that I had the proper gear on. This accident could have been just so much worse, look at my boots and my pants, imagine if I was wearing shorts and thongs like so many other riders.

Photo descriptions are on Flickr, so hit the image for info on it…

The gnarly stuff first…