Swinley crash – Page 2 – Bike Forum – Singletrack World Magazine Forum

rascott · 2017-04-30T08:20:30Z

Hi all If you were riding down Red 7 on Friday 28 April at between 1130 and 1330 you may have seen me reclining in the dirt. A small tree stump had invaded my field of vision - I succeeded in ignoring the 90% of trail that was obstacle free, managed to avoid the stump but the tree beyond the stump then took over distraction duties. Front brake grabbed a little too eagerly resulted in me going OTB and landing on my left hip with a crunch. Luckily i was riding with a mate who wasn't too far ahead. I managed to crawl off to the side of the trail on my good side but no further. I definitely couldn't get up. Bike Hub was called and a warden, Dan, arrived after about half an hour with a first aid bag. Given there was no external damage Dan couldn't do much beyond cover me with a coat and chat about bikes but this was very much appreciated - thanks Dan! some time later, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics did their usual bang up job -, gas and air deployed (amazing stuff), pelvic brace put on, strapped to a stretcher , a bumpy push down the trail to the waiting ambulance, about 9 hours on a trolley in RBH, x Ray and CT scan confirmed an acetabular fracture which is a fracture to the lining of the hip socket. This requires surgery to smooth things out and avoid arthritis later. So I write to you today from my hospital bed at John Radcliffe (RBH cant do this surgery apparently) waiting to know when the 3 hour op will be. More bored than nervous now. This could have been a lot worse - they are describing the injury as stable ie no damage to blood vessels or anything else, so there is no mad rush to do the op - they want to wait until they have the right people in and enough time to do it. Other possible contributory factors are that a) i'm new to Swinley - this was my 2nd ride there b) i was completely new to the bike - it was a demo Bird Aeris 145 and i was getting used to 1x and the Sram Guide shifters which you push to move up and down (I kept looking for a pull shifter therefore shifting too late). This is no reflection on the bike - for the 40 minutes I was upright it felt good and the bike definitely came off better than I did! C) I was riding SPDs - flats may have allowed me to run off the bike as it started pivoting. They are thinking 10 weeks on crutches then light weight bearing exercise so the biking is off the agenda for the foreseeable. Anyway if you were one of the riders who passed by and offered help (100%) thanks ! Bob

Rubber_Buccaneer

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bowel obstruction seems to have resolved

S****, you've made me think of Carl Fogarty's autobiography where he describes being given laxatives then flooding the place in shit while surrounded by attractive nurses 🙂 Hope you didn't suffer the same

Posted : 12/05/2017 7:49 pm

Rubber_Buccaneer

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I even have a copy of MBR

Hope you've read that by now and know you wouldn't have crashed if you had a 50mm stem and your forks were better at propping up the front end with small bump compliance and mid range support. Its the answer to everything 🙂

Posted : 12/05/2017 7:54 pm

rascott

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Thisisnotaspoon - wow - seemed to get you at the end? Very strange seeing this - pretty sure the bend where it happpned is at 8/9 seconds in - an easy flat left hand turn. Pretty sure I can see the stump passing by on the right hand side at that point. Thanks for the clip

Rubber - plenty of laxatives consumed this past fortnight but luckily everything mostly contained (apart from one enema incident that I won't go into)

Character forming stuff

Posted : 12/05/2017 7:57 pm

jambalaya

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Here is me having totally failed to negotiate a flat corner at "speed" fortunately dead brambles and not a tree. The photos from my Jedi day show me failing to ride round a flat corner on the skills trail, he is a genius but can only do so much 😐

[img] [/img]

Posted : 12/05/2017 8:08 pm

rascott

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Jambalaya- I may invest in a coaching session with Jedi or someone similar once I can get on a bike again. Although I think pootling around on my local Hampshire bridleways will be enough for a while just to get my eye back in. I'll avoid Swinley for a while i think. Long road ahead

Posted : 16/05/2017 8:06 pm

duncancallum

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I obliterated my acetabulm and damaged my femoral head. Had a 6 hour surgery. Blood transfusion the works.

Not a complete success but my hip replacement is as good as my pre smash hip

Posted : 16/05/2017 9:54 pm

rascott

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Ouch Duncan I think you won that one! My femur head OK, just the pelvis part. I had 2 units of blood a day after the surgery as my hemoglobin was dropping.

How long it was before you were walking normally again? I am touch weight only, ie 70:30 on the good side, for 6 weeks according to the physios. Better than the initial estimate which was 10 weeks.

I realise no 2 cases are the same but would be interested to know.

Posted : 17/05/2017 2:36 pm

Bunnyhop

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rascott - I really hope you recover fully and get back on the bike asap.

Another hip replacement here due to getting avascular necrosis ( 20% chance) after a femur break at the head. I was just unlucky. But I think you'll be fine. Now I'm back on the MTB, but with very little confidence and walking down a lot of stuff I used to descend.

Get plenty of physiotherapy. Listen to the doctors, ask lots of questions and realise time, it's all about the waiting game.

Good luck.

Posted : 17/05/2017 4:51 pm

rascott

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Hi Bunnhop good advice thanks. Physio starts next week and I may augment with a few sessions via private medical. I think I'll be the same on the bike - will stick to local XC loops and take it nice and easy to start with.

Posted : 19/05/2017 7:46 pm

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