Epic crash and recovery tale!

[Rookie]

This is very much down to boredom more than anything else, but I figured it might be a half interesting read, so I’ll post it up. I haven’t posted anything up properly yet as I’m only just able to use a keyboard again properly, for reasons that will become apparent.

Basically, on the 18th of June, I had a wee off. I was commuting to Bristol for work, I was about 5 minutes late, was accelerating away from the lights at the bottom of Park St, and a nice new BMW turns across me. I was so close when I did it that all I remember is a moment of impending terror, no chance whatsoever to brake, and next thing I knew a bloody great jolt and I was in the air. I remember spinning, a lot, and then I hit the floor quite hard. I sat up, got a glimpse of a great big cloud of steam which was my bike’s radiator, and then lay back down, because my arm had started to hurt, a lot. I started moaning quite a lot and quite a few people gathered round me and one called 999. They knew there stuff, told me to stay still, not take my helmet off. I had no desire to, it was comfortable. The only annoying bit was not having any peripheral vision as I was lying down in it, so I could only see straight up.

Luckily there was a St. Johns ambulance guy just next to the accident in his St John’s car, so he came over, gave me a quick check over, and gave me some tangy tasting gas which made me quite light headed.

An extremely nice white van driver who I remember filtering past asked if I wanted anyone called – I asked him to call my boss – to this day I have no idea why. I later found out my boss called my brother, who rushed down to the hospital and was there soon after I arrived. I was told by this nice guy that I did 3 midair flips when I hit the BMW. Now I know it was a pretty serious crash, but I wish I had video footage of that. I'm not a small guy by any means.

Anyway, the police and ambulance arrive, I’m causing some serious queues in the centre of Bristol now, at rush hour on a Monday. Made the local news. Sorry everyone who was affected! The ambulance men again give me a once over to check I’m not about to die, take my helmet off and put me in a neck brace, cut my jacket, gloves and shirt off me, take my shoes off and cut my waterproof overtrousers off. Bit nippy! Then they shot me up with morphine, it did pretty much nothing. I hear things about ‘compound fracture of the right arm’ – I knew it was broken, that’s for sure, it was really, really painful. About 25 minutes of this and they tell me they’re going to have to put the arm in a brace to stop it getting damaged on the way to hospital. The brace is straight, and my arm was at some very odd angle, I don’t know what, couldn’t see it. I’m sucking on this gas still, they give me another dose of morphine – again, useless – and straighten my arm to put it in the brace. I don’t know what they did but I can safely say that it was the most painful experience of my life up to that point. I made sounds like a dying ox, I’m sure. And I know there was a bloody big crowd watching me in agony, just out of my line of sight! Very annoying.

Once that’s over with, I’m rolled onto a stretcher (again, pain) and bundled into an ambulance with a lady police officer to hold my hand (well, hold my dead arm up.)

I get into trauma and they say they have to do a load of x-rays. I know my head and chest and everything are fine, but I let them get on with there stuff. I get a head, chest, pelvis and arm x-ray, and a head CT. They then say they have to ‘reshape’ my arm. I later learned that my arm at that point was referred to as a ‘bag of bones’. This basically means my arm didn’t represent an arm any more and they had to reshape it. I asked for more morphine, which I was duly given, but I still didn’t really feel much difference, though maybe there was. Anyway, they reshaped my arm. This was the new most painful experience of my life. I’m told the screams were audible across the entire ward, my brother could hear them through 3 doors. He was let in to see me after this, but I wasn’t in much of a state to talk, and neither was he. After this, I don’t remember a vast amount. I went into another room where I was give an injection and they said I wouldn’t remember much, though it wouldn’t knock me out. They were right, I don’t remember a thing after that. From what I can piece together though, I went into surgery at 5pm. I spent 6 and a half hours on the table, they put 12 pins, including a massive looking screw (on the x-ray) and 9 plates into me, and my next memory is coming to at about 1 in the morning with my mum, stepdad, eldest brother and his girlfriend standing round my bed. They all looked a bit shellshocked but I wasn’t to aware of much, being very groggy. I was very, very thirsty so I had some water, they left shortly afterwards. I can’t remember much about the next few hours except that I was thirsty. I was then taken out of this room and into a proper ward where I slept on and off until morning, again very thirsty.

When the ward opened up in the morning I had a cup of tea and my surgeon came to see me. He said I was going to get about 40 degrees of mobility back in my elbow, that it was an extremely complicated break. He said there was a lot of talk of amputation, but that they attempted the surgery in the end. It didn’t really register at this point, I was on self medicated morphine and was taking full advantage of it. My arm was in a big fat foam sling, hung up next to the bed.

My leg was very painful and I told him about this. He said that because I’d been lying on my side for about 7 hours it had knackered my thigh. It had a collection of red blisters on it, and was pretty immovable. They put me on nil by mouth (nothing to eat, nothing to drink – hell, I was so thirsty) because he was worried about it and wanted me ready for surgery if it was needed on the thigh. I was moved to an orthopaedic ward so they could keep an eye on the thigh.

I spent most of that morning on nil by mouth, can’t remember much. My mum and girlfriend came to visit me at some point, when I saw my girlfriend crying I got properly emotional for the first time since the crash. Apparently I was drifting in and out of sleep a lot – that’s morphine for you – though I felt quite normal, just a bit groggy.

The nurses kept measuring my thigh. It was at 77cm, and by the after it was 74cm. They decided it was safe to take me off nil by mouth. The first thing I did was get my mum to buy me a can of 5 Alive – it was like the kiss of life. Sugary drink, pure heaven.

I had absolutely no appetite though, turned down all meals for that day. My dad and stepmum came down from Leeds to see me, my grandparents, I don’t really remember a vast amount about it all that day, except I know my dad got shat on his forehead by a pidgeon.

The next couple of days they got me moving around a bit, I kept tearing my IV out as I was using the hand they were putting it in for everything, obviously. Eventually I got fed up with it and pulled it out, and told them I didn’t need it. They put me on Tramadol (morphine pills). Big mistake. They arsed me up big time. I remember taking them and falling asleep in front of 24 on my portable DVD player. Next thing I know it’s about 10 at night, and I feel perfectly normal. But I’m not. All I know is I’ve got to get a message to the nursing staff. I get out of bed, limp over to the door, go outside and say ‘I’ve got a message for you’. One of the nurses says ‘What, on your mobile?’ and I stop to think about this. ‘No – have you heard of Jack Bauer?’ I suddenly realise how ridiculous that statement sounded. ‘I’m a bit confused, I think I’ll go back to bed’. I wake up again, 2am, feeling fine, I need to get to work. Limp over to the door, stand in the doorway and realise I can’t work with these bandages on. Take my big fat sling off. I’m halfway through taking my bandages off when a nurse comes in and asks me what I’m doing. ‘I need to get to work!’ ‘This is a hospital!’ ‘I’m sure they’re the same building, I need to get to work!’ ‘Right, get back to bed.’ ‘I don’t want to know about getting back to bed, I need to go to work!’ I realise I’m rather confused again and get back into bed. Fall asleep again.

I decide the next morning that Tramadol isn’t for me.

On Thursday a nurse changed my bandages. There was a lot of messy stuff. I’d been carrying round a drain for the last few days, basically it drained all the bloody nasty stuff out of my arm. She pulled that out, and nearly fainted. I had an x-ray, and had a proper fibreglass cast put on. I was discharged Friday morning. Still hadn’t eaten more than a cracker since Sunday evening, I have no idea why but food just turned my stomach. It took me another 2 or 3 days to get a decent appetite back, I lost nearly a stone.

I also had to quit smoking, straight away. It kills healing bones. To be honest, it hasn’t bothered me. I haven’t had a cigarette since the accident and I’m fine, no cravings aside from habitual ones. I smoked for 3 years, 15-20 a day for the last 18 months.

I had an appointment last Monday, went and had the cast taken off, they took my surgical staples out (ouch) and put a new cast on me which doesn’t cover my wrist so I can finally type with 2 hands again. I’ve got another week with this one on, then it’s off and I’ve got the physio to start. I imagine it will be a good few months, then I can finally have a medical exam and I can get the ball rolling on some decent compensation.

Anyway, I hope this has been vaguely interesting to you lot. If not, sorry I wasted your time. I was bored. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot out and got a lot mixed up, morphine is horrible stuff.

[McGee]

[Rookie]

[Misc]

Glad to hear you're OK matey, very lucky by the sounds of things & a nice bedtime read.
I'm also selling the bike for a car, for me it's far to stressful having just the bike for everything & the obvious risk factor.

[chris-red]

Get well soon mate, whats happening about the insurance? By the sounds of the ordeal you have been through you should get a chunk. Has it been decided whose fault it was?
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[Rookie]

[Ariel Badger]

I gave up smoking cold turkey and it was hard.
Patches and gum work for some but IV Morphine does seem a little OTT.
Congratulations and remember, even though you are not smoking you are still a smoker. One ciggy and you will be addicted again and will have to go through the entire experiance once more.

Glad you are ok(ish).
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[cc123]

Sorry to hear about your off, sounds a nasty one. I'd hate to be in that position with all that confusion going on with the drugs.
Still, would you rather have £30k in your pocket or a fully working arm??!
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[Jack_Cheese]

[FreshAL]

Really interesting read.

How's your elbow doing?

[feef]

[paulthewitt]

good read, somehow it was funny at points as well!! must be the way you tell em!

hope you recover soon

[short1uk]

Much easier typing with 2 hands isnt it although i got quite good with one!

I had Tramadol a few years back OMG! that shit is mental isnt it. I got addicted to them!

Hope your feeling better mate. I am also bored not going back work till end of August and I am soooo bored its killing me.

Take care

Cath
x

[.....]

Hope you feel better soon

I must confess to laughing out loud at some points, especially the Jack Bauer bit .

[Gazdaman]

Good read mate. I kinda wish I headed to work a bit later so I coulda helped. But I wouldn't wanna see you like that man!

The pigeon bit made me laugh.

Gaz

[GodzGift]

get well soon Rookie, awfully sorry to hear about the accident, what happened with the guy in the BMW, did he run a redlight.
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Bike Level: Amateur | CBT Passed

[andrea]

Sorry to hear about your accident Rookie! Made me laugh at some points too, hope you intended it that way, especially the jack bauer bit

For anyone after Tramadol, I have a box at home after a visit to hospital on Saturday (not bike related), good shit i tell you... offers on a postcard

Rookie, hope you feel much better soon

[Barry_M2]

The bit about wanting to go to work made me chuckle!
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[trevoriv]

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Sounds a bit mental but cracking write up matey, fecking lucky to keep your arm from the sounds of it!


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Past: '96 Thundercat, '02 ZX636R (A1P), '58 KTM 690 SM LC4 Current: '06 ZX636R (C6F)
Mudskipper wrote: Someone just has to sig that...

[Handsome]

Sorry to hear of the Off Rookie, glad you're on the mend though mate...
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Previous Bikes...Honda NSR 125 RR...Kawasaki Zephyr 550...Suzuki SV 1000 S...Yamaha FZ8...Current Bike...Suzuki GSX-R 750...

[cagiva gezzer]

Feel ill after reading that....
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[michael j]

Excellent write up.
Get well soon mate.
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Ducati 996

[Evo]

Great Read but i hate reading horror stories as i remember them on the road. Makes you afraid
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Bikes owned
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[meyrick]

I switched my autotrader window from bikes to cars after reading that. What an ordeal, I hope your recovery is as speedy as it can be. For some reason it also reminded me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNzq1YD7g_g

(not meaning to trivialise the experience, but you seem to be in relatively good humour about it). Mend well

[gmanxiii]

Cool, brill read hope you get well soon mate, im in for an op on my arm tomorrow i'll see if they will give me some of what you was having
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