Good luck. My experience in the last week has been positive so I hope it rubs
off.
Must be a #2 son thing.
After nine years of riding 42km per day (26 miles) to and from work, my second
son Chris was hit by a delivery van on Friday afternoon 8 days ago. The screen
in the emergency room displayed a grim brevity - 'Cyclist vs. Truck - high
speed'. The impact was a straight 80kph (50mph) from behind. He was quite
astonishingly lucky - four broken ribs and a punctured lung, three cracked
vertebrae and a lot of scrapes. Helmets are compulsory here, thank goodness.
But head-butting the scenery at that speed has implications - in this case some
contusions of the forebrain. He was agitated and confused going into intensive
care and lost three days memory. His post traumatic amnesia is classified as
severe but he seems to be coming out of it very well. His level of fitness is
extremely high and that may have saved him. In fact he rather annoyed them in
the intensive care unit by getting up and going for a stroll. Being confused,
he tended to get lost.
Last weekend was possibly the worst of my life. I feel like we've dodged a very
large bullet indeed. I'm still a bit shaky thinking about it. He's now in a
rehab centre and because of his earlier tendency to wander, they've put in a
locked, high dependency ward for a few days at first. I hope he takes time to
take a close look at the others in there - the serious brain injury patients.
And thinks what might have been. He should be over the short term memory
problem quite soon. I hope.
One of the best things I did was to take a few pix each day - #1 son in the UK
said he thought it was in bad taste but was seriously relieved when he saw the
smile on day three and promptly posted it on his Facebook wall. Small gallery
here -
http://www.pbase.com/afildes/chrishospital
We live in a semi-rural area but the police were there in five, the paramedics
in eight and he was inside one of the best trauma units in the country in 80
minutes - and it's nearly 50k away. Any further out or any sicker and they'd
have used a helo. Car registration here is quite expensive because it includes
compulsory accident insurance - all medical costs are covered and they'll pay
him 80% of his average pay for the forseeable future, even if you're a cyclist
or pedestrian. It's a decent system. There were nice touches like the
paramedics waiting to talk to us at the emergency bay about the circumstances.
They were quite surprised that he survived at all.
Oh - and yes, the driver stopped. He's has been charged. Careless driving
occasioning GBH. He'd driven for four hours across the state without a break
and didn't see him. The cop I spoke to later was a little underimpressed by
that.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 21/01/2012, at 4:40 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Well, once again the call goes out for prayers, positive energy, good
> thoughts, etc., for No. 2 Son, Benjamin, who will be admitted to the Maine
> Medical Center on Sunday, and on Monday will undergo an aerobic valve
> replacement.
--
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