MikeYork5
Well-known member
I have come to the realization when riding motorcycles that it isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but rather a matter of 'when’ it's going to happen. Bottom line is I present myself as the newest member of the coveted CRASH CLUB., This one happened on my 04 Harley Deuce which who knows what might have happened if I'd been on one of my other bikes.. If I had been one of the other bikes I might have been able to avoid the miss hap all together. In other words, if I’d been on a bike with strong breaks, doesn’t weight 700 lbs. and handles, Who knows, but that’s all conjecture on my partI.
Sunday (Nov 4) I went on a short ride up the Ortega Highway and was in kind of a hurry to get back home to see the Patriots game; I was on the southbound 5 fwy on the Camino
Estrella exit (my exit) which is a three lane exit, 2 lanes turn to the left and 1 lane turns to the right. I was in the middle lane probably 200 feet back from the light when for some unknown reason I looked (something grabbed my attention) to the right. Well when I looked back forward (my lane) the traffic in my (all?) lanes were dead stopped waiting for the light to change, At this point I think I was going about 40 mph with basically all 3 lanes of traffic were stopped dead waiting for the light to change. So directly in front of me was a 3 series BMW stopped dead about 20-25 feet in front of me, I knew I was screwed, First reaction was to grab the brakes (both) but as (especially) you Harley guys know the rear bakes lock and the bikes ass end started to slide to the left,. Just as quickly I thought to get off and did get OFF the rear brakes, eo attempt to snap the ass back straight and steer between the line of cars in front of me and the line of cars to my right. Well that idea night have worked if I had another 30 feet of stopping distance but such was not the case. I guess I hit directly his right rear bumper with my left hip, which was I guess the major point of impact, I then supposed I carend off of the car at a 45 degree angle to the side of the rode, I was aware at this point that I probably had no injury to my upper body and head. I was now laying on the ground on my right side, I knew immediately I had a serious problem because I could not move my left leg, My right leg one seemed to be OK but the left was dead, Also, as I tried to remove my helmet I noticed my right wrist was bent at an angle that it had no business being at,. I was wearing a full face flip up Nolan Helmet and although the front shield would flip up, with my bad wrist I couldn’t get the main front face area to flip up. In addition I had my ipod on and although the ear pug disconnected from the unit during the fall, the earplugs are custom made and once they fitted into my ear they block out about a ll the noise anyway. So I havea ll these people gathered around asking me if I’m alrightand I basically hear a thing they ae saying. The most aggravating thing was not being able to get the helmet off due to not being able to open the font fa ce piece,
The EMS guys got there pretty quick and transported me to Mission Hospital, Mission Vtejo, because they have a TtramaUnit. When I got there they stated cutting off my favorite levis, no leg abrasions), my harley leather wasbasically untouched – they got that off of me without cutting it, then they cut off my T-Shirt and took off my boots. Having what gear I did have on definitely saved my body from additional abrasions, another one forMOTGMOT. They took me into surgical ICU where all hell started to break loose. My blood pressure was dropping like a rock and I wasn’t bleeding on the outside, they determined I ruptured the femoral (sp) artery. Which I understand is not a good thing - like in the phrase “bleed out”. As they explained to me it sounded like thye put something like a heli- coil in my right groin (an artery) and threaded it across over to he left side artery that was ruptured then activated it which in turn stopped the bleeding in the femoral artery. My left hip was shattered, it was called an ‘open book’ fracture meaning the hip bone that is like an ear on the side on your hip was broken clean away vertically, like an open book. As well as the hip bone being broken into 5 or 6 other pieced. Also, my bones in the pelvic region were spread apart about 7iches normally they are basically together.
So, bottom line my hips were spread way apart so they put a couple of guys on each side of my hip and pushed it together and hooked me into some kind of girdle type thing to keep everything generally in alignment until Tues Nov 6 when they put my hip back together, the Orthopod, Dr. Kevin Wilkens is one sharpe guy, looks about 20 (Dougie Howser?) but knows his game. He is one of two guys in Orange County who do tis type of Trauma surgery. He said the operation took about 7 ½ hours and they used 7 units of blood. After they stopped my hp bleeding and the a fore mentioned girdle this is now back to Sunday afternoon) they started working on my right shattered wrist, which was about2-3 inches shorter than my left one in it’s current condition. He made a kind of sling out of something like an Ace bandage but not of a stretchy material that was about 3 feet in diameter. He put one end on the floor which he put his foot on and the top part of the sling around my forearm with my hand/wrist sticking straight up n the air ---THEN he put my extended hand between his two extended hands (like he was praying with my hand in the middle – maybe he was) then he started pulling, HARD. Actually that didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would ,must have had something to do with that morphine button I was pressing like a ;jeopardy’ buzzer. They did the surgery on my wrist Thursday Nov8, kept me in Surgical ICU another day then moved me into the general population. A few days after tat I was moved to Acute Recovery Unit where I spent two weeks. Altogether I was in the hospital 3 weeks and 2 day. I’ve been at home two weeks now and am just starting to get back to some normalcy in my life. I can’t put bit any weight on my left leg nor on my right wrist. I do use and can ge around on a walker – very carefully. I’m hoping in about three weeks I will be given the OK to start putting some weight on my left leg, which is moving back toward walking (riding) again. I saw the surgeon yesterday and he pulled 4 pins out of my wrist that were holding some of yhe smaller bones in place. I also have an internal splint that runs under my skin from the base of my middle finger knuckle to my mid foreman. He wants to keep that in another 6 weeks hopefully to help some of the smaller, more shattered bones heal and lock in my wrist,
So there you go boys, I joined the god damn CRASH CLUB! Totally my stupid ass fault, totally avoidable. I took my eyes off the rode for a couple of seconds and am and will be paying the price for some time to come. Please don’t repeat my dumb ass mistake. After 46yeears of riding about 3 or4 seconds is costing me literally weeks (only I hope ) of hell!
Sunday (Nov 4) I went on a short ride up the Ortega Highway and was in kind of a hurry to get back home to see the Patriots game; I was on the southbound 5 fwy on the Camino
Estrella exit (my exit) which is a three lane exit, 2 lanes turn to the left and 1 lane turns to the right. I was in the middle lane probably 200 feet back from the light when for some unknown reason I looked (something grabbed my attention) to the right. Well when I looked back forward (my lane) the traffic in my (all?) lanes were dead stopped waiting for the light to change, At this point I think I was going about 40 mph with basically all 3 lanes of traffic were stopped dead waiting for the light to change. So directly in front of me was a 3 series BMW stopped dead about 20-25 feet in front of me, I knew I was screwed, First reaction was to grab the brakes (both) but as (especially) you Harley guys know the rear bakes lock and the bikes ass end started to slide to the left,. Just as quickly I thought to get off and did get OFF the rear brakes, eo attempt to snap the ass back straight and steer between the line of cars in front of me and the line of cars to my right. Well that idea night have worked if I had another 30 feet of stopping distance but such was not the case. I guess I hit directly his right rear bumper with my left hip, which was I guess the major point of impact, I then supposed I carend off of the car at a 45 degree angle to the side of the rode, I was aware at this point that I probably had no injury to my upper body and head. I was now laying on the ground on my right side, I knew immediately I had a serious problem because I could not move my left leg, My right leg one seemed to be OK but the left was dead, Also, as I tried to remove my helmet I noticed my right wrist was bent at an angle that it had no business being at,. I was wearing a full face flip up Nolan Helmet and although the front shield would flip up, with my bad wrist I couldn’t get the main front face area to flip up. In addition I had my ipod on and although the ear pug disconnected from the unit during the fall, the earplugs are custom made and once they fitted into my ear they block out about a ll the noise anyway. So I havea ll these people gathered around asking me if I’m alrightand I basically hear a thing they ae saying. The most aggravating thing was not being able to get the helmet off due to not being able to open the font fa ce piece,
The EMS guys got there pretty quick and transported me to Mission Hospital, Mission Vtejo, because they have a TtramaUnit. When I got there they stated cutting off my favorite levis, no leg abrasions), my harley leather wasbasically untouched – they got that off of me without cutting it, then they cut off my T-Shirt and took off my boots. Having what gear I did have on definitely saved my body from additional abrasions, another one forMOTGMOT. They took me into surgical ICU where all hell started to break loose. My blood pressure was dropping like a rock and I wasn’t bleeding on the outside, they determined I ruptured the femoral (sp) artery. Which I understand is not a good thing - like in the phrase “bleed out”. As they explained to me it sounded like thye put something like a heli- coil in my right groin (an artery) and threaded it across over to he left side artery that was ruptured then activated it which in turn stopped the bleeding in the femoral artery. My left hip was shattered, it was called an ‘open book’ fracture meaning the hip bone that is like an ear on the side on your hip was broken clean away vertically, like an open book. As well as the hip bone being broken into 5 or 6 other pieced. Also, my bones in the pelvic region were spread apart about 7iches normally they are basically together.
So, bottom line my hips were spread way apart so they put a couple of guys on each side of my hip and pushed it together and hooked me into some kind of girdle type thing to keep everything generally in alignment until Tues Nov 6 when they put my hip back together, the Orthopod, Dr. Kevin Wilkens is one sharpe guy, looks about 20 (Dougie Howser?) but knows his game. He is one of two guys in Orange County who do tis type of Trauma surgery. He said the operation took about 7 ½ hours and they used 7 units of blood. After they stopped my hp bleeding and the a fore mentioned girdle this is now back to Sunday afternoon) they started working on my right shattered wrist, which was about2-3 inches shorter than my left one in it’s current condition. He made a kind of sling out of something like an Ace bandage but not of a stretchy material that was about 3 feet in diameter. He put one end on the floor which he put his foot on and the top part of the sling around my forearm with my hand/wrist sticking straight up n the air ---THEN he put my extended hand between his two extended hands (like he was praying with my hand in the middle – maybe he was) then he started pulling, HARD. Actually that didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would ,must have had something to do with that morphine button I was pressing like a ;jeopardy’ buzzer. They did the surgery on my wrist Thursday Nov8, kept me in Surgical ICU another day then moved me into the general population. A few days after tat I was moved to Acute Recovery Unit where I spent two weeks. Altogether I was in the hospital 3 weeks and 2 day. I’ve been at home two weeks now and am just starting to get back to some normalcy in my life. I can’t put bit any weight on my left leg nor on my right wrist. I do use and can ge around on a walker – very carefully. I’m hoping in about three weeks I will be given the OK to start putting some weight on my left leg, which is moving back toward walking (riding) again. I saw the surgeon yesterday and he pulled 4 pins out of my wrist that were holding some of yhe smaller bones in place. I also have an internal splint that runs under my skin from the base of my middle finger knuckle to my mid foreman. He wants to keep that in another 6 weeks hopefully to help some of the smaller, more shattered bones heal and lock in my wrist,
So there you go boys, I joined the god damn CRASH CLUB! Totally my stupid ass fault, totally avoidable. I took my eyes off the rode for a couple of seconds and am and will be paying the price for some time to come. Please don’t repeat my dumb ass mistake. After 46yeears of riding about 3 or4 seconds is costing me literally weeks (only I hope ) of hell!
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