Clothes removed / cut-off and destroyed / lost by ambulance / A&E

I have sympathy with the OP, I could cope with my clothes being binned but why would they bin the glasses and bag? The things I would like back no matter what condition they were in are bag, shoes, glasses and helmet. The oakleys could have been warranted if damaged as could the helmet (crash replacement).

Anyhow hope you get better soon and hope you get your gear back.

why would they bin the glasses and bag

I don;t think he said they binned the bag, just the strap?

binned the bag not the strap

The scenario in the original post presumably isn’t unique – so why is it that a Standard Operating Procedure isn’t in place to avoid this kind of eventuality?

This is symptomatic of the NHS – crammed to the gills with people but singularly lacking in processes that deliver good care to a repeatable standard and undermined by ways of working and behaviours that are no longer acceptable but apparently tolerated by staff at all levels:

There’s more here in the same vain:

More nurses but standards are going down

and

A crisis in nursing

We probably all know people that have had great care from the NHS but unless we are more honest about the times when the NHS gets things badly wrong there’s unlikely to be any improvement the day to day experience for patients which is surely the most important thing.

Farmerjohn – there are procedures inplace for this sort of thing – here they have failed.

Nice of you to get in your usual NHS bashing while you are at it

The best way to learn from mistake is to go to no fault incident analyis. But you would rather hammer people for mistakes wouldn’t you. An increase not decrease in staff would not go amiss as well

Farmer_John go private if you find it so bad, just hope you don’t get really ill or else they will dump you at the first possible point

Seems like a fair enough OP to me.

I mean, imagine how miffed youd be if you were this guy and one day you crash your bike and wake up to find all your personal effects mysteriously gone.

Think yourself lucky that the worst of your worries are about what has happened to your ruined stuff!

Cripes..

I started reading this and thought “ohhh blinkin ek” when the OP scribed his tale. Fairynuff he wanted to know about his kit, would have thought that would be brought with him to hospital by the ambulance crew but hey.

Lucky to be alive and all that.

Then the threads sunken into the levels of backarguing and the like, as per usual.

Shame.

That’s not what’s been said Penrod.
Edit: just realised there was a page 4- whoops!

INRAT but quite easy to ride in £500 worth of kit

Being an Oakley collector some of the glasses I wear whilst riding are total one off’s and impossible to replace.

If I’d have suffered the same fate as you and lost a pair of them and the rest of my other kit I wouldn’t care! I’d genuinely be thankful to be alive

(though I’d like to make sure my bike got home ok)

Claim on any insurance you can, that’s what it’s there for

Wow 🙂 At the risk of re-igniting this thread I thought I ought to come back to it now I’m in a better place.

Clearly no-one in their right mind would have been more concerned about their kit than those nasty injuries and at the risk of trying to defend myself I guess one of the reasons I started this thread was that I wasn’t “in my right mind”.

It’s been over 4 weeks now and I’m making good progress.

The District Nurse who came to take my stitches out a week after said they normally keep people with my injuries in hospital for “much longer”.

The Facial Team were pleased with how well my facial fractures were healing after 3 weeks and discharged me. My dentist has been fantastic. Jaw (plated in two places) not brilliant still and may lose some teeth after-all but could be worse.

Wrist fracture healing well and elected to have cast taken off at 4 weeks. Lost strength and flexibility but nothing physio can’t address.

Spinal fractures still stable and healing well. Consultant says it’s “interesting” that I’m still (relatively) mobile (able to walk 100m with aid of a crutch and one flight of stairs).

Pain, discomfort and lack of sleep still a major feature. To be expected at this stage.

GP has been very helpful trying to tweak the cocktail of drugs I’m on to maximise pain relief and minimise side-effects (anyone else been on tramadol? A separate thread perhaps?) (Now on codine / paracetamol / ibruprofen / laxatives mix which is less “effective” but less “nasty” – my wife* says it’s nice to get me back!)

Still no recollection of the accident. Or the hours before. Or much of the time I spent in hospital (5 days in the end). More of a concern my mind still keeps ‘leaving bits out’ of memory. (e.g. Riding buddy Kevin came to visit the day after I was discharged with cake and flowers. One week later I’d completely forgotten this and was surprised he’d not been in touch).

GP said last week that this is completely normal given my head injuries and should return to normal after 8 weeks or so. As you might gather from a couple of my commments above, my poor wife* was not at all happy I was moaning about my kit. Apparently I had a few other ‘completely out of character’ bizarre moments in hospital including one involving a neurologist who wanted to test my reflexes and another even more bizarre one featuring ‘faggots and peas’!!!

I’ve got my bike back (the local newsagent looked after it for me). I’ve also had an email from an off-duty police inspector who happened to be one of the first on the scene. He’d described one witness saying that I “just launched myself over the bars” and that fits with what we’ve found on the bike – the front brake caliper has unexplainable broken loose and caught in the front wheel(broken nut possibly?). It doesn’t matter but it helps to know it was a freak mechanical failure that caused it and not me or someone else.

My wife received a call from an off-duty nurse to say I’d been taken to hospital. The policeman also confirmed that it’s her I might well have to thank for saving my life – apparently she secured my airway whilst I was led unconscious. (Hoping to track her down and say thanks personally at some point).

If any of you ambulance techs / paramedics / policemen / firemen / nurses out there took this thread as a dig at you I’m especially sorry. You do a fantastic job. Keep it up 🙂

Yes, those who said “it could have been worse” you were right, it most certainly could. I might not have realised that 3 weeks ago but I do now..

Anyway, back to the point of the OP and my kit. No, perhaps unsurprisingly it hasn’t magically been returned to me. Suffice to say though that the guys in my LBS have been brilliant, the guys at Oakley and Giro have been brilliant (my poor suffering wife* emailed them!). A few mentioned above that I should claim on house contents insurance – should have said, not possible. Should also have stressed that despite what I was or wasn’t thinking money was never a consideration.

There’s always an upside. I’ve been indundated with messages, cards and all manner of cake and cycling related DVD and reading material. It’s been great to to hear from so many people, including some I’ve not heard from for a while. And TooTall and llama who a must get a special mention for sticking up for me above (I’m not sure I would have!!)

Anyway, enough about injuries and ‘what-if’s’. Focussing now on recovery. Each day a little bit. Shed a few tears watching Chris Akrigg’s video but mind in right place now. Progress may be slow but aim is to be back on the bike in 12 weeks.

*Final mention must go to Karina. Above all, sorry to have put her through the anguish of it all. Couldn’t do it without her 🙂

Get well soon, as that’s a hell of a lot on injuries, but you are 4 weeks closer to getting back on the bike 😉

Nice post. thanks

And the moral is, don’t post on STW when stoned on painkillers!

Get well soon.

And the moral is, don’t post on STW when stoned on painkillers!

My irational ramblings over Christmas clearley passed for normla then 😛

Good to hear you’re healing well. I can really recommend some DX Fauxleys…

Really glad to see youre making a recovery, we all say things sometimes we dont mean to, i think in the circumstances you should be allowed to get away with it.

Oh and im sure a few tins of biscuits to the relevant hospital departments, and obviously the local paramedics would be very nice for them.

Good news. Nice post. Get well soon 8)

Nice to see you back relatively OK. Sounds like you really did a number on yourself, I’d be interested to see more of that brake caliper but one distinct possibility, depending on location, is that you got a branch in it – it’s happened to me at lower speeds, but it’d be obvious from the rotor.

Very glad to hear that you are on the mend, hope things continue to go smoothly for you.

get well soon. sounds like you have a fair old path yet to travel, but that your chin is up. 8)
all the best.

Wow that was some read!
Good to hear you are on the mend.

Thanks for the update and sounds as though you’re really going through the mill. 🙁

Completely understand how the head reacts to an accident as after mine I became very anxious that it may have been a hit and run – no memory of it at all.

Hang in there, small steps literally, you’ll get there. 🙂

Good luck mate. Just read your thread for first time. Healing vibes! I had a bad eye socket fracture in 2004 from a bike crash.. My fault! My teeth are still a bit numb!
The mental shock is as bad as the crash. I think I understand what you went through . After a bad stack the shock makes us desperate to get back to “normal” that I think is why you weren’t thinking straight and wanted clothes back etc. it’s a massive shock with injuries like yours. Mine certainly took me a few years to get over and rationalise. The worse bit I remember was having the nose packing in.. Good luck and don’t rush getting back.

More healing vibes here! Glad to hear you’re on the mend.

I’m pleased to hear you’re recovering Andy.

Good to hear you’re on the mend. It feels like a long time to get back in the saddle, but at least the trails may have dried out a bit!

Get well soon!

Glad to hear you’re recovering.

Your drugged rant doesn’t beat the guy whose partners life I saved from a severe Asthma attack. I bumped into him a few weeks later and he went into a full rant about how I must have her false breast as the hospital certainly didn’t. This was in front of load of his friends, he went a bit red when I asked how she was now that she was out of hospital.

People have funny responses to various stressful and emotional times. This was yours.

Good luck with the rest of the healing.

Thanks all 🙂

Yes, as Project suggests, plan over next week or two is to get out and thanks those who need to be thanked personally. Cheers Drac, I’ll remember that one for the paramedics!

he went a bit red when I asked how she was now that she was out of hospital

I bet he felt a right tit.

Or maybe not, if that’s the missing one…

Get you back to work, Andy. The crazy people here make anything you’ve ever typed appear rational and erudite.

check your caliper bolts kids…

brakes – Member

check your caliper bolts kids…

Added a mental note to do this when reading Andy’s update. Watched Closer to the Edge yesterday and their mechanical failures are proper scary!

TooTall – Member
Get you back to work, Andy.

Daytime tele is enough to drive anyone back to work!

brakes – Member
check your caliper bolts kids…

At the risk of getting “he was on a road bike?!? he deserved it” posts 😉 I should point out I was on a road bike and I’m talking roadie stile brake caliper – the bolt being the one that goes through the top of the fork. It was old and there was a tiny bit of ‘play’ in it but up until the crash but it was all functioning fine (even pull, not done up too loosely / tightly etc).

check your caliper bolt kids (and roadies)

Interesting read and whilst I’m didn’t agree with his initial sentiments, hes subesquently clarified things and its great news he appears to be on the mend.

I’ve got to say that this type of post doesn’t exactly do my riding confidence much good…that sounds like a nasty nasty crash…

anyhow, I’m off to check my brakes..

hope you’re back on the bike soon…

:-)Thought I’d come back to this one. For a few reasons.. It’s been 9 months now. I mentioned above about some of the mental (psychological) issues I’ve had. (Starting this thread being one of them!) It’s only been relatively recently that amongst my other injuries I’ve come to realise the significance of the bang on my head.

For lots of reasons (including the other injuries being more pressing at the time) no-one picked up on the neurological issues and what I now know was the brain injury I suffered.

As a result of breaking my jaw (another thread! http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/broken-jaw-recovery) I was sent to see a Speech Therapist and it was her that realised that my speech was being affected as much by neuro issues as much as my jaw being broken. Cut a long story short that led to me finally being referred for neuro assessments and eventually treatment.

One of the therapists mentioned James Cracknell and his wife Bevs book in which they document his recovery following him being hit by a truck (on Route 66) whilst crossing the US in 2010.

It’s been tough reading it but at the same time a useful part of the (necessary) healing process. So many “me too” moments; all helping me understand that the effects of the injury are ‘normal’: no memory still of the accident, the days before and weeks afterwards, some memories of things that have been ‘implanted’ (as others have told me since), others that I’m convinced are real but are not, some vivid ‘snippets’ (hearing my wife’s voice for the first time, crying in front of the kids).

Also comforting, but at the same time worrying, reading that my experience is all too common: personality changes, uncharacteristic outbursts, driving recklessly, anxiety, stress and depression. I’m still hoping I won’t be one of the 40,000 of people who have suffered a brain injury end up in prison, or the 75%+ who end up divorced!

..On that note. The good news is that with the support of his wife, family and friends, James Cracknell has made amazing progress. Like many brain injury sufferers he may never ‘recover’ fully but together they’ve done a fantastic job of re-building their lives.

The main reason for coming back to this then is to thank my wonderful wife, family and friends for all their support. I’ve largely been avoiding computers and screens for much of that nine months (again common I now learn) and I’ve not been on the Forum much but, as is the case with so many other things I’ve not been able to enjoy this year (the odd beer and riding with my mates being amongst them) I’m looking forward to being able to getting back as my recovery progresses.

Happy Christmas everyone, here’s looking forward to 2013 🙂

ooooh, just read this (I think for the 1st time)

Really pleased to hear you’re doing well, AA

I came off a road bike at the bottom of a hill in exactly your circumstances when I was about 20 (brake detatched from frame and ran along with the wheel until the cable pulled tight). Luckily I seem to have managed most of a somersault before hitting the deck and only got a glancing blow on the side of my head plus a skinned back. I lost about a day of memory, mostly permanently apart from remembering the tetanus jab at the hospital.

I’m a tetchy bugger, and very forgetful – just wish I could blame the crash 😉