Crash and injuries discussion (posts moved from another topic)GORE WARNING

MJW61 · Feb 26, 2014

ChamMTB said: ↑

Wow, I just read this thread and can only say how unbelievable it is for some of you to go through something as traumatic as that. I am glad you are all recovering, and it is sobering to read as a reminder of how fragile we are sometimes when it goes wrong.

It reminded me of this accident footage I saw recently, of one of the famous riders on the MTB scene, who had a really innocent looking crash. He has posted this up as an appeal to the riding community to learn more about accidents and first aid. Which is an admirable cause. It also reminds everyone how fragile the body is, as well as how many times people manage to walk away from the remarkable (Marquez anyone??!! ffs).

Watch it if you feel up to it. He severs the phemeral artery in his leg when his pelvis breaks. He doesn't even know at first or realise what is happening. His mates save his life with the most remarkably calm first aid in unbelievable circumstances. He is in the middle of bloody nowhere when this happens, in a race on Reunion island. He is hard as nails. Cedric Gracia’s ‘Mega’ Crash | Dirt

For as ghastly as some of these stories and pictures are, sometimes they are also rather life affirming.

Go carefully out there people, but don't forget to live your lives either. Life is risk. But it's not always easy.....
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Femoral. Nasty, effing nasty.

MJW61 · Feb 26, 2014

AndyW said: ↑

No 'poke' assumed .........here's a Google map of the scene - red marker the actual crash site, green approximately where the overtake maneuver commenced (I used the term filtering earlier, of course filtering is a 'type' of overtaking - in this case there was only oncoming traffic (a few cars) at the outset hence 'filtering' [nice wide straight road by the way] but once they were clear I moved to the centre of the opposite lane with no oncoming traffic....overtaking), orange the approx position of the traffic lights, head of the traffic queue.
NB whilst looking at the satellite view and/or street view may be useful the actual layout of the junction and the road markings and signage have changed sometime since 2006;-)

Yes, the cardinal sin lol, overtaking with a turning on the right.....in my defense (malud): I was aware of this - my speed was adjusted for quick 'change of plan' - the view was excellent - I was there to be seen for quite some time - and the unknown factors that led me to believe it was safe to proceed?? (with hindsight / after the fact....the mis-judgements, the factors/decisions I cannot recall).
So what went wrong???!!!
For my part, I will never know.......for the lorry driver's part, whilst he denied it to the last, he clearly did not check his mirrors and CERTAINLY did not do a shoulder check - the case went in my favour as clearly I was there to be seen with ease and whilst my position / maneuver was perhaps less than ideal I was proceeding with caution (my speed and road position). Apparently typically 'filtering' accident claims are settled 50/50 or worse hence I was happy to settle for 60/40 in my favour.

Yes you can share my story wherever you feel it may do some good

I think the crucial factor was the weight/momentum of the bike coming from 20'ish mph to zero against an immovable object........with my leg between the two Still a salutary lesson there!

RoSPA forum - of course, as I said to AndyB

It was almost 2 years to the day that I rode again for the first time, so 5.5 years ago already......too early tbh with the pain but I was so keen to get back on the horse so to speak!! Physically and mentally it was challenging but I'm glad I pushed myself as the enjoyment of riding soon returned.
I 'wangled' the dates each time I had to have more surgery for Winter so in general I was back on the bike each time in late Spring or early Summer :biggrin:

Couple more photos (oh there were some above not loading for some reason....now fixed)

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. Best Shoei EVER! Haydon. I've got one of these. Unmarked

MJW61 · Feb 26, 2014

AndyW said: ↑

After 6 months all fractures in my foot and Tibial plateau were well and truly healed but the mid-tib impact site was just not responding - not uncommon with 'high energy' fractures apparently

Last chance to save my lower leg, a treatment not yet (at the time) available on the NHS....infusion of Bone Morphogenetic Protein..........but my PCT have to sign off the costs and their budget is £16m in deficit at the time so despite "sign this off or he'll loose his leg" from my consultant (Prof Atkins - two bits of luck for me [1] the BRI is the Orthpeadic centre for the SW and Prof Atkins is the top man in the country for Taylor Spatial Frames and ortho trauma treatment). I have to kick up a fuss to get things moving

Had the surgery for the BMP and a revised Frame Dec2006........which did the trick eventually.

15 months in the TSF (Frame)......followed by 3 months in special plaster casts as my Tib was still 'fragile'

Over the following 4.5 years I had further surgery at least once a year, sometimes twice....sometimes fairly major e.g. Strayer Procedure - Achilles Tendon cut from the calf muscle and reattached with less 'tension'.....and the totally ironic one, they rebroke by Tib (oh and Fib for the third time.....survived the actual crash!) and put me back in a TSF for 3 months. This was done as my knee joint was failing so they rebroke my Tib, after all the time and effort to get it fixed and straight, to introduce an intentional 'kink' to offset the effect of the failing knee joint (too young for a replacement knee! :-O )

The last surgery I had was the week before Xmas 2012 on my foot to fuse a severely arthritic joint (some joints already fused in the healing process after the original injuries)........more irony, having fixed that joint the next one down is going the same way with the additional stress on it :-(
...but I'll put up with that as long as I can as I've had enough surgery for now!

I can get around fine and most importantly can ride of course but have limited movement of the knee and ankle joints and constant joint, muscular and other pain to varying degrees.........not complaining, just saying

So...........one split second of poor judgement/mistaken decision..........resulted in around 15 surgical procedures over 7 years, with more to come on my foot and a replacement knee at some point........and chronic pain.

Take care out there!

Couple more random pics....

Arthroscopy and internal cleanup of the knee joint

Before the rebrake and further TSF

Bloody Frame....literally

Fixed but not pretty

And you can't have enough blatant pussy shots

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Worlds best nurses. Prrrfect ;-)

AndyW · Mar 1, 2014

:biggrin:

The following photo has been doing the rounds on Facebook etc recently - tbh the like / share this if you agree...support...or whatever stuff that is far to prevalent on FB gets on my wick but I guess this one certainly gets its message across! ;-O (even though I have a feeling it may be a photoshop fake?)

Decided against posting the actual image, pretty gory..............take a look here if you wish:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAAAACpg/uWLm0YIlv5k/w701-h939-no/photo.JPG

ATGATT!

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