Topping Frank's bike injury thread

It's not a competition and I wasn't even going to talk about this here,
mainly because stories about bike accidents devolve into such
predictable discussion. But what the hell:

On 5/22/17 I had a head on collision with another cyclist on a bike
trail at fairly high speed- I was going downhill and he was climbing
strenously. My bike was thrown up and back at me and the other guy came
flying over his handlebars. I was struck in the throat by something-
possibly my handlebar, possibly the arm of the other guy- and fractured
my cricoid, displaced my left arytenoid (whatever that is), had
hematomas around my vocal chords that nearly closed off my airway,
contusions, cuts, skin tears, etc., all over the place. I probably also
had a concussion although since I was sedated for the first week it was
hard to tell; we are assuming. No neck or spinal injury, no other
broken bones. From the collision I was thrown onto nice soft grass, so
that probably helped. Interestingly I did not actually hit my head at
any point in the accident, yet still likely had a concussion.

I was sedated and intubated in the ER on 5/22 and then moved to ICU from
5/22/17-5/26/17 when a tracheostomy was placed so that they could
extubate me and wake me up on 5/27/17. I had a whopping case of
delirium during that time. Two days later I was moved to the stepdown
unit and recovery began to be quite fast- amazingly so, to me. On
5/31/17 the tracheostomy was removed ("decannulated"). I had
spectacularly good care at the hospital. On 6/2/17 I went to the Acute
Rehab Unit for lots of PT/OT/speech therapy and was discharged home on
the following Monday. Two weeks of PT, OT, speech therapy, doctors
appointments, neuropsych testing, etc., on an outpatient basis followed.

My recovery has been excellent, I feel fine and seem to be back to what
passes for "normal" for me. There's a little bit of bruising left to
heal and my voice is missing the top octave and a half that I used to
have. I am qute grateful that the accident broke the way it did and my
injuries weren't much worse (broken hip or something), that I had a
great EMT team, great ER docs and great care at the ICU, stepdown unit
and rehab unit.

Haven't seen all the bills yet. I suspect this ain't gonna be cheap.
One expense is going to be repairing my custom Chris Kvale rando bike...
:-( Top and down tubes, fork and front rim bought the farm.

On Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 9:58:26 PM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
It's not a competition and I wasn't even going to talk about this here,
mainly because stories about bike accidents devolve into such
predictable discussion. But what the hell:

On 5/22/17 I had a head on collision with another cyclist on a bike
trail at fairly high speed- I was going downhill and he was climbing
strenously. My bike was thrown up and back at me and the other guy came
flying over his handlebars. I was struck in the throat by something-
possibly my handlebar, possibly the arm of the other guy- and fractured
my cricoid, displaced my left arytenoid (whatever that is), had
hematomas around my vocal chords that nearly closed off my airway,
contusions, cuts, skin tears, etc., all over the place. I probably also
had a concussion although since I was sedated for the first week it was
hard to tell; we are assuming. No neck or spinal injury, no other
broken bones. From the collision I was thrown onto nice soft grass, so
that probably helped. Interestingly I did not actually hit my head at
any point in the accident, yet still likely had a concussion.

I was sedated and intubated in the ER on 5/22 and then moved to ICU from
5/22/17-5/26/17 when a tracheostomy was placed so that they could
extubate me and wake me up on 5/27/17. I had a whopping case of
delirium during that time. Two days later I was moved to the stepdown
unit and recovery began to be quite fast- amazingly so, to me. On
5/31/17 the tracheostomy was removed ("decannulated"). I had
spectacularly good care at the hospital. On 6/2/17 I went to the Acute
Rehab Unit for lots of PT/OT/speech therapy and was discharged home on
the following Monday. Two weeks of PT, OT, speech therapy, doctors
appointments, neuropsych testing, etc., on an outpatient basis followed.

My recovery has been excellent, I feel fine and seem to be back to what
passes for "normal" for me. There's a little bit of bruising left to
heal and my voice is missing the top octave and a half that I used to
have. I am qute grateful that the accident broke the way it did and my
injuries weren't much worse (broken hip or something), that I had a
great EMT team, great ER docs and great care at the ICU, stepdown unit
and rehab unit.

Haven't seen all the bills yet. I suspect this ain't gonna be cheap.
One expense is going to be repairing my custom Chris Kvale rando bike...
:-( Top and down tubes, fork and front rim bought the farm.

Tim, I am so glad your story has a happy-ish ending. Are your vocal cords going to recover, or is your career covering Barry Gibb songs over?

I have to ask -- what happened to the other guy and why the collision? Like I have said here before, other cyclists can be a serious hazard.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Wed, 12 Jul 2017 06:22:59 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

Tim, I am so glad your story has a happy-ish ending. Are your vocal
cords going to recover, or is your career covering Barry Gibb songs
over?

My ENT thinks the vocal chords will heal and improve, although I may not
get my full range back.

I have to ask -- what happened to the other guy and why the collision?
Like I have said here before, other cyclists can be a serious hazard.

The other guy seemed to be fine (he looked to be in his late 20s). He
told my wife he was OK and told the EMTs the same. As for "why," I
think that I was the other cyclist that was dangerous. My recollection
is that I may have cut the inside of a left-hand bend and was still
towards his side of the trail. D'oh!

On 13/07/17 00:58, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Wed, 12 Jul 2017 06:22:59 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

Tim, I am so glad your story has a happy-ish ending. Are your vocal
cords going to recover, or is your career covering Barry Gibb songs
over?

My ENT thinks the vocal chords will heal and improve, although I may not
get my full range back.

I have to ask -- what happened to the other guy and why the collision?
Like I have said here before, other cyclists can be a serious hazard.

The other guy seemed to be fine (he looked to be in his late 20s). He
told my wife he was OK and told the EMTs the same. As for "why," I
think that I was the other cyclist that was dangerous. My recollection
is that I may have cut the inside of a left-hand bend and was still
towards his side of the trail. D'oh!

Takes guts to admit to a mistake like that.

On Sun, 16 Jul 2017 12:20:15 +0200, Tosspot
wrote:
On 13/07/17 00:58, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Wed, 12 Jul 2017 06:22:59 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

Tim, I am so glad your story has a happy-ish ending. Are your vocal
cords going to recover, or is your career covering Barry Gibb songs
over?

My ENT thinks the vocal chords will heal and improve, although I may
not get my full range back.

I have to ask -- what happened to the other guy and why the
collision? Like I have said here before, other cyclists can be a
serious hazard.

The other guy seemed to be fine (he looked to be in his late 20s).
He told my wife he was OK and told the EMTs the same. As for "why,"
I think that I was the other cyclist that was dangerous. My
recollection is that I may have cut the inside of a left-hand bend
and was still towards his side of the trail. D'oh!

Takes guts to admit to a mistake like that.

Or perhaps idiocy. My wife would vote for the latter. She would have
voted for that before the crash, now she is convinced possibly beyond
remediation.

Tim McNamara wrote:
It's not a competition and I wasn't even going to talk about this here,
mainly because stories about bike accidents devolve into such
predictable discussion. But what the hell:

On 5/22/17 I had a head on collision with another cyclist on a bike
trail at fairly high speed- I was going downhill and he was climbing
strenously. My bike was thrown up and back at me and the other guy came
flying over his handlebars. I was struck in the throat by something-
possibly my handlebar, possibly the arm of the other guy- and fractured
my cricoid, displaced my left arytenoid (whatever that is), had
hematomas around my vocal chords that nearly closed off my airway,
contusions, cuts, skin tears, etc., all over the place. I probably also
had a concussion although since I was sedated for the first week it was
hard to tell; we are assuming. No neck or spinal injury, no other
broken bones. From the collision I was thrown onto nice soft grass, so
that probably helped. Interestingly I did not actually hit my head at
any point in the accident, yet still likely had a concussion.

snip

Haven't seen all the bills yet. I suspect this ain't gonna be cheap.
One expense is going to be repairing my custom Chris Kvale rando bike...
:-( Top and down tubes, fork and front rim bought the farm.

Valid concerns. So how did your strenuously climbing victim fare?

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 6:26:29 AM UTC-7, Sepp Ruf wrote:

Valid concerns. So how did your strenuously climbing victim fare?

Oh, he's dead but who cares about him when the downhill maniac is OK?

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 7:22:23 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 6:26:29 AM UTC-7, Sepp Ruf wrote:

Valid concerns. So how did your strenuously climbing victim fare?

Oh, he's dead but who cares about him when the downhill maniac is OK?

I can't speak of Tim's situation, but it's the uphill guys who are often the hazard because they tack across the road. Descending bicycle traffic tends to stick to the right half of the lane simply to avoid car traffic. I encounter this all the time coming home through the West Hills. Roads are narrow and steep, and riders make no effort to get over. https://tinyurl.com/y8apn7mx Particularly the dopes who can barely make it up the grade -- they'll take a tack right in front of you. Happens all the time to me right he https://tinyurl.com/ybsvjan5 Scroll down to the corner. Imagine riding your brakes over broken pavement, having your fillings rattle out, coming around the corner and some dope is in your half of the lane, tacking back and forth up Westwood. I feel like slapping them. When I'm riding up, I stay to the right and watch uphill traffic.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 8:44:19 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 7:22:23 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 6:26:29 AM UTC-7, Sepp Ruf wrote:

Valid concerns. So how did your strenuously climbing victim fare?

Oh, he's dead but who cares about him when the downhill maniac is OK?

I can't speak of Tim's situation, but it's the uphill guys who are often the hazard because they tack across the road. Descending bicycle traffic tends to stick to the right half of the lane simply to avoid car traffic. I encounter this all the time coming home through the West Hills. Roads are narrow and steep, and riders make no effort to get over. https://tinyurl.com/y8apn7mx Particularly the dopes who can barely make it up the grade -- they'll take a tack right in front of you. Happens all the time to me right he https://tinyurl.com/ybsvjan5 Scroll down to the corner. Imagine riding your brakes over broken pavement, having your fillings rattle out, coming around the corner and some dope is in your half of the lane, tacking back and forth up Westwood. I feel like slapping them. When I'm riding up, I stay to the right and watch uphill traffic.

I thought we were talking about MTB's?

On 7/12/2017 11:44 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 7:22:23 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 6:26:29 AM UTC-7, Sepp Ruf wrote:

Valid concerns. So how did your strenuously climbing victim fare?

Oh, he's dead but who cares about him when the downhill maniac is OK?

I can't speak of Tim's situation, but it's the uphill guys who are often the hazard because they tack across the road. Descending bicycle traffic tends to stick to the right half of the lane simply to avoid car traffic. I encounter this all the time coming home through the West Hills. Roads are narrow and steep, and riders make no effort to get over. https://tinyurl.com/y8apn7mx Particularly the dopes who can barely make it up the grade -- they'll take a tack right in front of you. Happens all the time to me right he https://tinyurl.com/ybsvjan5 Scroll down to the corner. Imagine riding your brakes over broken pavement, having your fillings rattle out, coming around the corner and some dope is in your half of the lane, tacking back and forth up Westwood. I feel like slapping them. When I'm riding up, I stay to the right and watch uphill traffic.

That's my specific worry about a proposed bike path in our local metro
park. The "Rose Garden Hill" (as our club calls it) is about 1/4 mile
long at probably a 10% to 15% grade, with pavement maybe 18 feet wide.
It pretty much dead ends at a garden parking lot, so most cyclists avoid
it, but we sometimes do it just for the brief challenge.

The park put out a sketch of a proposed remodeling of the gardens. It
included a ten foot wide bi-direction sidepath for bikes. I immediately
pointed out the problem Jay describes. It's too soon to know if they'll
listen, but in any case, I'll never ride that path if it gets installed.

--
- Frank Krygowski