Whatsup Fellas. I Had One Hell Of A Weekend.

[sredish]

Well well well. I just got home from my trip. I see you've all met my wife, Stacey. As you can see, she has never been a fan of my desire to ride quads, nor will she ever. I completely understand her view behind it. That's between us and we'll work it out one way or another. As far as riding, it will be awhile before I could even try. It's hard enough to walk into the kitchen for a glass of water. This is long and I apologize, but I just wanted to get this out. I appreciate all your concerns and prayers. I'm gonna make it and will live to see tomorrow, but I definitely have a new story to tell.

 

It all started when I left yesterday morning. Never did i think that I'd end up in a hospital bed that night.

 

I had been there for probably 4 hours or so, and I had already been out once. WE went back out and were running some bowls and then took off through a flat section. I was running about 30 or 35 mph i noticed a little lip ahead. It appeared to just come up a little and flatten out on the other side. I was getting closer and closer. When I got right on it, it suddenly showed a 30' straight drop. By the time I saw this, I was so close that it was too late to turn. Instead of blipping the throttle like I know to do to bring the front end up, I paniced and hit the rear brakes to try to slow myself before going down. I didn't get a good enough grab when I hit the brakes and still caught some decent air, but my front end was straight down. I remember thinking "oh shit" and I tried to pull on the bars, but didn't get any lift.

 

Of course, my front tires hit first and very hard. It threw me face first and on my stomach into the sand. The quad bounced and rolled over and the handlebars landed straight onto my back. It was such a hard blow, I collapsed. I thought, "my back is broken", that's how hard it hit and how bad it hurt. I don't remember the next few moments, but my buds say the quad bounced and twisted and took me with it, my feet were caught on something and twisted me like a pretzel. The next thing I remember is me trying to get up, I thought, "I have to get up, I have to get out from underneath". However, I could not breathe in. It felt like my throat was totally closed; I couldn't get any air in at all. By then, my buds had grabbed the quad and pulled it off of me.

 

The one friend is an EMT and was trying to check my vitals or whatever. Checking my feet and legs for movement. Amazingly, I could move, I KNEW my back was broke. At this point, my only thoughts were air. I have got to breathe. I had a full mouth of sand, not too mention every other part of my body. After I stopped panicing, I realized my back muscles were so tight that I had to relax to be able to breathe in. I was able to pull some air in, but I was totally gasping. After about 30 minutes, I could at least get some air, but only like 1/4 breath and I could breathe all the way in, and really couldn't catch my breath. We were in a small bowl and had to get out. He asked if I thought I could get my quad back to camp, I said I'll try. I made it about 20 feet and was totally out of air again. I spent another twenty minutes on the ground catching my breath. I hopped on my buds ds650 and i leaned against him to try to take the pressure off my back. We were going super slow and it was the most excruciating ride I've ever taken. My breathing was more like wheezing. We had to go up some hills and down and it was absolute hell, but I knew I had to get out of there. We made it back to camp and two of them went back out to get my quad, there was one person out there watching it. 30 min. later, they were back and my condition hadn't changed. I couldn't breathe and move at all.

 

I told him he has to take me to the ER, I knew something was wrong. 30 miles later, we pull into the Alva ER. They give me some morphine and some muscle relaxer, and that was a blessing. After a 4 or 5 xrays the see that my right lung had totally collapsed, and the ribs that were broken and cracked are on the left side. They don't have the necessary equipment to handle the lung, so they call an ambulance for a ride to an Enid, OK hospital, 100 miles away. By now, the morphine was in me and it wasn't too bad. It still hurt, but there was enough relief, I could breathe about 1/2 a normal breath if I was still, which was a lot better than wheezing and short little breaths. I was going in and out for half of the trip to Enid.

 

When I arrived, there was more xrays, an IV was put in and then the nurse began prepping me for the dr. The dr. was going to put an incision in my right side all the way through my ribs so he could poke a tube into my lung. He was awesome, used some local anesthetic and i couldn't feel the incision. I could, however, feel him trying to poke a hole into my lung and it was a very sharp pain. In fact, I made him stop to give me some more local. It still hurt but not as bad. When he poked a hole, it felt like something was sucking air through my mouth and down my throat. Very very weird feeling. Once that was done, some of the pain was gone for he was able to reinflate my lung with a machine. However, there was new pain with the tube. Every time I breathed in, it felt like an ice pick was sticking me in the back.

 

After that, they xrayed to see if the tube was correct and it was. They then moved me up to a standard room. THere I under went tests, questions, and more tests. It was now around 3am. They finally left me alone around 4am, and I slept until around 6 and was in and out until about 10am. Then they gave me breakfast and then took me down for some xrays. The xray showed the lung was fully open. He turned off the machine so we could see if it would stay open on it's own. He told me if it stays open for 3 or 4 hours, then I'd be fine and could go home if I wanted to. I was 4 hours from home. He came back in at 1pm to take a final xray and it come out good. THen, he pulled out the tube. Aaah, relief, no more ice pick in the back. They removed the IV and said I could go home. There wasn't much they could do for my ribs and said just to be very careful. Not to lift over 15 lbs.

 

I'm now home. I got home about thrity minutes ago. I can't do anything, and it hurts like absolute hell to walk around, so I'm sitting in my recliner writing this. I can't shower until Monday and I can't pull the bandages off of my incision until Monday. Also on Monday, I'm supposed to go to my local dr. and have him xray me once more to make sure the lung is exactly how it should be. However, I do feel very lucky that I was able to come home after a single night. I also feel extremely luck that I did not break my back or end up totally paralyzed (as did a very good friend I grew up with after a snocross race accident). For a moment there, I was unsure if I'd be able to move.

 

Sitting still in a comfy chair allows me to relax and not have too much pain, but as soon as I move, get up, walk, or any type of real movement, I'm reminded of my ribs in the back. I have a watermelon sized black & blue area on my back, and my jersey was ripped in 3 or 4 spots. My helmet made it out alright, as did my bike. They flipped my bike back over and it fired first kick, no cracks, bangs or bruises; can't tell it even happened as far as the bike. I'm still finding sand in spots I didn't know exist.

 

Later.

[locogato11283]

damn scott. its good to hear you are alright. broke my collar bone on a 4 wheelr but it wasnt near as bad as your accident. before you even get all healed up im sure youll be itching to get back on that banshee. get better quick and keep us updated. also check out the chicks on banshees thread. i got some new pics up in there that might make you feel a little better.

 

tyler

Edited May 16, 2004 by locogato11283

[Indubitably]

Wow the dunes can be your worst enemy sometimes. Glad to hear that your ok. Hope you'll be back on the shee soon. My pops kinda did the same thing in his rail, but he hit his head on the roll bar and it kinda scalped him, crazy shit.

Pete

Edited May 16, 2004 by Indubitably

[Meat]

wow thats crazy. collapsed lung sound gross and painful. Get some rest and keep poppin' the pills. On the brighter side, you got a good story to tell, and you should develope some nice scars. I went over the handlebars once and had a cartwheeling atv fly past me, it was one wreck I'll never forget. Wreckin' really makes ya feel alive doesnt it

[02_banshee]

i havnt had a bad wreck yet... touchwood but i do feel sorry for ya and pop dem pills and rest ....dot forget to read heaps on BHQ loldid ya do much damage to ya shee?? take some pics

[sredish]

Wreckin' really makes ya feel alive doesnt it

Yeah, I remember being on my hands and knees just after they pulled the quad off and I was trying to spit out the sand in my mouth, and I couldn't get enough air to spit out the sand. Alive is right and how fast shit can happen.

 

One thing that makes me feel better is Chappelle's show, but it hurts to laugh.

[sand rocket]

glad to hear that you are ok.

not that it realy matter right know but hows the shee?

[erbilabuc]

wow that sucks and i experienced almost the same thing when i broke 2 right ribs in january, can I ask what exactly it is when a lung collapses?

[sredish]

wow that sucks and i experienced almost the same thing when i broke 2 right ribs in january, can I ask what exactly it is when a lung collapses?

your lung is normally like an inflated balloon, and it expands and contracts as you breathe. when a lung collapses, all the air has been expelled and it's sitting uninflated and flat inside your chest and doesn't move air in or out like it should. This usually happens when it's punctured, say, by a broken rib. In this case, they said it deflated due to how hard the impact was when the quad landed on me, literally knocked the air out of it and it was on the opposite side of where my ribs cracked. That's partly why I couldn't breathe.

 

My banshee doesn't appear that it was even in an accident. It fired right up, my bud said it steered perfect and there was no broken plastic or bent bars. It looks like it did before the accident.

Edited May 16, 2004 by sredish

[KRMit]

Glad you're alright man. That could have been a lot worse. We wouldn't have known what to do without you.

[Banshee~]

Glad to hear your still alive and kickin my brother hit a huge rock in a field on his kx125 and broke both arms.The kx endoed 3-4 times and the renthals werent bent a bit.He had to ride about 1hr and 20 mins to a hospital in tulsa.When you go to the doc. ask for some demeral that stuff feels so good

[NYUK]

damn sredish,get well soon.

[Cotton eyed Joe]

and then took off through a flat section. I was running about 30 or 35 mph i noticed a little lip ahead. It appeared to just come up a little and flatten out on the other side. I was getting closer and closer. When I got right on it, it suddenly showed a 30' straight drop.

Thats EXACTLY what happened to me, except my dune was only about 15'. AND My banshee started on the first kick too, except you could sort of tell that it had been in a wreck since it sat to the left by about 20 degrees, the left front rim was touching the brake caliper, and none of the suspension would collapse.

 

Good to hear you are alive, that is fo' sho'! I don't know about you, but I couldn't sleep for about a week. Everytime I closed my eyes I replayed it in my head.

Hope you don't get that shit going on. I think that was just as bad as wrecking.

[The Rebel]

Glad you're back bro, been there my damn self. Cracked ribs aint nothin' nice. We all figured a rib had punctured a lung, thank the good Lord that wasn't the case. Sounds like you'll be back in the saddle before a cat can lick his ass. The little lady has taken this pretty hard Scott, hope you got some good painkillers to ease the pain from the ridin' she's gonna put on ya Get well soon..

[2004LEBanshee]

Gods on your side man. Glad to hear your ok.