Hey everyone,

Not that we need it, but this should serve as a reminder to the rest of us that you just never know!

my buddy and I are both new to riding last year - were going for a boot last night but he made it to the spot before me. As i'm suiting up i get a call from him that i should bring the car instead and that he's hurt.

I didn't even ask what was wrong.. flew out of the house and drove out to the spot. When i got there, he had a pretty baddly broken leg. After x-rays, turns out he broke it in 3 places (Tibula and Fibula) so it was just hanging by the skin/muscle. Almost a compound fracture. He's in surgery this morning to have a metal rod put in for life.

This all heppend only doing 10km/h... the front end of his bike hit a root or something and popped up... the bike tipped over and it was just an awkward fall.. nothing spectacular.

Anyway, being new to this sport, this is a big wake up call to NEVER let your guard down... you just never know.


On the plus side, his MX boots actually supported, and kept everything together, and kept the swelling down until we got him to the hospital.

We had to call another friend with a truck to do some 4 wheeling into the bush to get him out. Crazy night.

 

Sorry to hear about his accident.

This is a good reminder that protective gear really can help. If he didn't have the boots on he could have compound fractures, and those aren't pretty.

 

Man, that's rough.

 

Hope the metal rod doesn't keep him from riding.

 

I worked with a guy who did the same thing except he fall on a sheep trail on a flat paddock at 10km/h with all the MX gear on.
Speed has a lot to do with it or the lack of it.

 

You never know what's going to happen. It's ridiculously easy to break bones. Sometimes it's tough to believe that a bone can be broken by such an easy fall. A friend of mine ended up with a compound fracture PLAYING GOLF! He was hitting the ball off the "T" and somehow his feet didn't shift correctly as he swung through. He ended up with about 6 surgeries, pins in his leg, skin grafts, etc. I think it cost about $1.2 million in the end. (Lucky he had insurance). He was one surgery away from having to lose the leg. Luckily the last surgery worked.

Sorry to hear about your buddy. I hope he is up and around quickly.

 

That is so insane Army. I was going to say that the WR accident shows that anything can happen any time. This guy wasn't even hitting it hard on the bike. I was actually going to say it was a freak accident and you could probably break a bone just as easily doing anything even playing golf.

 

1.2 MILLION... are you Kidding me?!? oh man.... the good thing about canada is it's all "free". He was upping the morphine shots like crazy while lying in bed (and rightfully so). The bad thing about canadian hospitals is that it's slow... he actually hasn't had the surgery yet... likley tonight or even tomorrow.

The doc is now saying he should only be out of commission for about 8 weeks now. The MX boots seriously saved a lot of damage... it was so close to being a compound fracture that some doctors thought it was... but there was no blood... doctor says likley due to the boots.

Since i only have 2000kms on a bike (ever) i'm a bit rattled by the whole thing.. we'll be back out soon enough! (at least i will be) :S

Be Safe Everyone!

 

I don't know about letting my guard down, it's pretty much alwayse up when I'm on the rough trails. It's just one of those things, nothing anyone of us can do anything about. I suppose there's that extra caution a person can have, but like you say wrecklessness had nothing to do with this accident.
Good luck to your buddy.
My fiance broke her scaphoid bone in her wrist and dosn't even remember, or know how it was done.
Long story short now her life is changed for ever because her hand is there, but has so much pain that she can barely use her hand, and already has arthritis developing. She is going for a nerve blockage sometime in the future so she will have no feeling in her hand.
Again, thanks to Canada, the only thing we paid for was tylenol and $20 for a fibreglass cast instead of a cement one.

 

That is pretty gut-checking. To wipe out going so slow and to get so seriously screwed up. I bit the big one about a month ago doing like 15 mph, bounced off a tree with the lefthand barkbuster, ripped the bars out of my hand and panic-revved right into a stomp, went over the bars and rolled a couple times. I still have the scar and the huge knot in my chest (though not as big as it was right afterwards). It sucked, scared me to death. Scary thing? My gear arrived the following monday (elbow/arm guards, knee/shin guards, pants), and for my birthday I desire a chest protector. Just the slightest speed can seriously rock your world. I mean, seriouusly, I was probably less than 15 by the time I hit the ground but sheesh that junk hurt. Nothing a few mixed drinks couldn't cure later that night, though

Good boots are a huge necessity. The $190 shipped I paid for my Sidis was the best investment I've made thus far.

I hope your buddy pulls through alright!