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Emergency Room Vet sounds off for safety

freebird6

freebird6

Member
Member
My daily emails had an interesting take on safety gear on cyclists.

Don’t want to wear a helmet? Sign up as an organ donor.

DEBBIE MOORE-BLACK, RN | CONDITIONS |


I walk out my front door today to do my obligatory walk around the block with my pups.

Two police cars with blue lights flashing, lead a caravan of over 100 motorcyclists to a funeral for one of their fallen brothers. They revved up their motors in the procession, I guess, as a sign of love, of brotherhood, of kindred spirits in the motorcycle world.

I choked up. I was ready to cry. It reminded me of that 23-year-old male I once had while I worked surgical-trauma ICU.

A young man riding his motorcycle with no helmet, no protection, flying freely down the highway. Superman. “I’m going to live forever.” Not a care in the world with angel dust (PCP) in his system. Feelings of freedom and forgetting any troubles.

No troubles — until it happened. He crossed the line. Killed an innocent man in a car — a deadly collision.

He came to us from the emergency department. He was paralyzed from the neck down and on the ventilator with chest tubes, fractures to legs, ribs, arms — eyes wide open. But he couldn’t blink. He couldn’t track, his pupils were irregular.

His poor mother called me every morning at 6 a.m. with a crackle in her voice.

A motherly voice of sad surrender.

“Is he any better?” she would ask.

And sadly, I would have to tell her no. He wasn’t better; he was worse.

Eventually, a conference was called with the intensive care trauma team physicians and the mother. We would withdraw life support.

And that was it.

Maybe he would have been saved had he not done drugs. Maybe he would have been saved if he had a helmet on.

Maybe.

An emergency department physician once gave us ED and ICU trauma nurses a seminar. I’ll never forget.

Don’t wear your helmet — then make sure you register as an organ donor.

In the U.S. 19 states do not require a motorcycle helmet.

Motorcycle helmets reduce the rate of head injuries by 69 percent and reduce the risk of death by 42 percent.

According to the CDC, close to 2000 lives were saved due to helmet wearing in 2016.

The blue lights passed by me. His buddies of over 100 in single file, revving their motors … and not one with a helmet.




 

TAGGED AS: EMERGENCY MEDICINE

 
Thank you for sharing your heartfelt and personal reflections and feelings on this. Life is al about choices, we have free will but also are not free from the consequences of our actions, in-actions, and choices.
 
Knowing your experiences, and what has happened, I am fully appreciating you sharing this.
Even fully ATGATT, we are not invincible.. but, those that survive, can readily say without some protection, they wouldn't be saying anything... just feeding the worms.
I live in N.E. Ohio, we currently have a status as a "helmet not required" for those with "time and age" on motorcycles...
It was repealed back in '78, and has never been forced back into "law", only exception is for minors, and first time license holders.  I admit, back then, I was invincible; or so I thought, but just prior to that point, I was involved in a "crash", in Canada, with my girlfriend on board... we WERE wearing helmets, and as much "protective" body covering as we think today, is a "bare minimum"... a rider we were following home, invited to hang out, was riding to my right side, and while we were riding at high speeds, thru a neighborhood in Toronto, simply "turned left" in front of me, with no signal.. as I slammed into his bike, and tried to control, the bike went down (and NO... I "didn't have to lay it down", it went down hard) and while sliding behind him, with my passenger onboard, I grabbed her leg and freed her of the bike, as I and the bike continued; It flipped, and I was thrown free, and un hurt.. minor scrapes.. she had some minor(knocked out, but quickly came out of the unconscious state)  head trauma, but was fine, and the helmets saved both of us.. they both had major ground down spots, that I would have attributed to a fatality...had they not been worn; we rode home the next day, after she had some attended attention to a broken finger at a local hospital.
Youth, coupled with alcohol, and being "invincible", would not have faired well in Canada...40+ years ago.

I rode without a Helmet, for maybe 3 more years in Ohio..and then on occasions, for another couple years off and on, didn't wear a Lid... then, decided to stop tempting fate.
I can't imagine anyone doing this stupid "it's my choice" thing today.. yet, on the road past my house, 8 out of 10 riders, and passengers, ride without. :mad:

organ donors... waiting to donate.
:-X :-X :-X :-X
 
You are right MOB. WHen I read this nurses account I understood her pain both as a survivor and from nights I spent in the ER as a resident on call. I was ATGATT from the early days in my cycling career. Wore jeans for a couple of months and then it was done. Olympia pants, Decent jackets and boots. Now post accident it's Motoport and Shoei.  I'll keep preaching ....the man upstairs left me here for some reason.
 

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PCP? Is that still even used anymore? Sad and tragic, but he made a decision to ride in an altered state, nothing but bad will happen.
 
It has been my experience that most every COG rider is quite safety conscious wear their grear and are quite competent in their riding. Just wanted to point out that there is more to riding safty than just the gear training and practice is every bit as important. Now you may be a great rider but the best in any sport don't stop practicing just because they have reached greatness.
The reason I bring this up is Tim Rieb has found an excellent opportunity for 18 individuals to participate in an advanced cornering class at the 2020 National.  I hope that interest goes well beyond the 18 available spots. If interest in this class is overwhelming I promise I will make every effort to make more opportunities at least for those NW area members.
Be sure and stop by Tim's poll and check that yes box!!!
 
I think it is crazy to not wear a helmet, but I still think it's a riders choice. I won't ride again because of an accident my wife and I had 6 years ago. I wouldn't be writing this if we weren't all geared. We even received an "award" from the Minnesota State Police for wearing helmets. Just feel it's an individual thing. I never wore one on a horse!  :)
 
As always, this discussion is going on at the Stromtrooper V-Strom forum.  I'm in the ATGATT crowd....on my motorcycles.  When working at anything with tools, especially power tools, I wear ear protection, safety glasses, steel toes, etc.  All that is required in the factory where I work, also.

Having said that, I have A FAST bicycle (not nearly as fast as it was 30 years ago, for some reason), but it will easily hit 40 MPH down a good  hill.  My all-time high speed was 52.5 per the speedo many years ago, down a looong steeeeeep hill.  Scared me half to death.  With 23mm slick tires, brakes are just wishful thinking.  But I have done all that in a T-shirt, Spandex shorts, and a dixie-cup bicycle helmet.  As the saying goes, "The road doesn't care what you fall off of."  A few small road-rash incidents, but nothing to cry about.

I was on a large-group bicycle ride many years back, the road had been freshly chip-sealed, like maybe a couple of days before, still had gravel piles along it.  A woman lost control of her bicycle on a down-hill and went over the handlebars, landed on her face.  I heard that the she pretty much lost everything from the eyes down, her nose was ground off, lips, all the skin off her chin, broken jaw, a bunch of teeth, etc.  They said one of the responding EMT's puked.  Lucky I didn't have to witness it.

It isn't really practical to wear my full-bucket SHOEI, leather chaps, Alpinstars boots, Tourmaster gauntlets and armored jacket on the Trek, because I couldn't go more than about 5 MPH.  And I fully realize I am at greater risk of being wiped out by a car on the bicycle.  But that's how it is.

And YES I am an organ donor.............harvest what you can (the brain is in good shape, pretty much unused) and burn the rest.

Ride as safe as you can. :beerchug:
 
A friend of mine has a brother that has been a cyclist for decades.  A few months ago he crashed and broke 5 ribs, his collar bone and pelvis.  It's not the first time but I believe it was the most serious.  He's 65 or 66 I think.  Ouch!  When I was 6, I had a bicycle accident that put me in the hospital for a week or so.  I broke the big blood vessel in my chin.  Lot's of swelling.  The doctors were afraid I'd swallow my tongue and choke to death.  It loosened all of my teeth, so it was mashed bananas and half melted ice cream for me for a good while. :truce:
 
Riding my motorcycle in N.Georgia for over 15 years I was constantly amazed at the bycycle riders going downhill and I'm passing them maybe 30-40 mph. I'm ATGATT (firm belever) and they're in spandex shorts, tight Italian riding shirt, tiny gloves and some kind of helmet. Always wandered how they'd do if they went down at that speed.

Glad I never saw one of those accidents but heard of many over the years. Could never convince my brother who rode competitively in KS/MS to wear gear and he'd just smile. He's been lucky.

Ride safe, whatever you ride.

Phil
 
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