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Date:         Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:10:56 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Re: Am stuck in a wheel chair (not a funny post and its not
              friday...)
Comments: To: Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
In-Reply-To:  <vanagon%2003092323435642@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Ben huot wrote:

>Before you read my long post I invite you to look at one picture: >http://www.desert2002.com/crash_moto/moto_crash3.jpg > Ben, I'm indeed sorry to hear about this. It's good to know you are still here with us. And I wish you a speedy recovery. Sounds like you will get there OK in time.

You are indeed lucky. The type of incident/accident you experieced could have been a lot worse, or even taken your life. It is terrifying to know that you have done all you can to be safe, and yet the situation be out of your control.

Here is a true story, one that I was closely associated with, and very close to your experience, ie, type of accident.

Regards, John Rodgers 88 GL Driver

My business partner's son, Ken, was cruising - admittedly going fast - on his Yamaha down a four lane street with an island in the middle, in Anchorage, Alaska. A car suddenly pulled out from the right side after running a stop sign at a side street. The car was headed across the road to the other side of the fourlane. It happened so fast that Ken had no time, and T-boned the car in the left front fender. He struck the car with his right knee, and the impact drove his femur straight back, shearing the ball off the bone and simultaniously tearing the whole thing from the socket in his hip. The now sharp bone end was forced backward, severing the sciatic nerve in his right hip, through the muscle of his right buttock and then severed the anal sphincter from the rectum, and the bone end continued traveling until it punctured out through the skin. The blow also broke his right hand.

Ken was thrown over the hood of the car completely across the highway. As he sailed through the air, with his right leg now disconnected at the hip, ie, no bone and ligament to hold it in position, the leg just flailed around, flopping every which way. The flopping action while sailing through the air caused the sheared femur to retract from the buttock, and now it acted like a spike being punctured through the inside of his body, piercing the liver in several places, and puncturing the spleen and the intestine. At the point of impact with the ground there was a fireplug, and he hit the fireplug head first and fell to the ground. He had on a helmet and the helmet split wide open right down the middle. Somehow, at that point he also broke some bones in his left arm and hand.

A police car was sufficiently close behind so as to witness what was about to happen and he reported that he had already picked up his microphone to call the emergency vehicle by the time the impact took place. Fortunately, the emergency service was one block down the street and they were there in moments. Additionally, the hospital was only a couple of blocks away, and these two facts save Ken's life. Had there been any delay he would have died.

Ken's heart stopped six times on the way to the emergency room. And did so several times in the emergency room. They couldn't understand why there was so much blood loss until hey got him into the right position and discovered all the liver and spleen damage. If I recall correctly, he got something like 22 units of blood before they were able to stabilize him.

He was in the hospital for 3 months, most of it on a Morphine cocktail, fed through tubes in his neck and his nose, all the while laying on a bed that had little air bladders that inflated and deflated every few seconds, to keep his skin stimulated and prevent bed sores. Those beds alone cost $20-25,000 each.

The broken ball on the end of the femur, was put back together - it was in three pieces - but it died, and had to be removed. Due to the damage of the gut, and rectum, a raging infection set into the hip and there was more tissue death. They were giving him the most powerful antibiotics known, but were losing ground. About every day they had to go in and remove dead tissue and repack the surgical openings.

Finally Ken's mother asked the prognosis, and was told if things didn't change dramatically in short order they would have to remove the leg at the hip. She asked if this would save his life. The answer was, they didn't know, given the infection and the lack of progress in fighting the infection.

At this point, to the consternation of the infection control doctor on the case, she had him treated by a physician who beleived in "ozone infusion" for infection control. Some of the professional medical staff pitched a bitch, and one even quit the case. This was not mainstream medical treatment, but it worked. In two days pinkness returned to the area and then the infection began to clear.

It was months before Ken was able to get out of the hospital. In the meantime, he had many surgeries. A colostomy was done as a result of the severing of the anal sphincter muscle, and they went back in and reconnected that and removed the colostomy. Now all seemed OK in the end of things. There was much physical theraphy. He was not a candidate for hip replacement due to all the infection that racked the area. The docs were afraid to disturb the area for fear of creating new problems. Unexpectedly the femur fused to the pelvis, enabling Ken to walk without crutches, albeit with a severe limp, as his right leg is shorter than his left by two inches, but the fusion gave him some rigidity at the hip. He wears a lift on his shoe, and goes pretty good.

Ken's recovery to any kind of reasonable function took well over a year, and the event altered his personality. Before the accident he was one laid back dude, but afterward he was short tempered, and delighted in a little meanness. This was the result of oxygen deprivation when his heart stopped, plus all the shock to his body and the drugs. The glad side of that however is that he was alive, and even though it took some time, about 5 years, he was his old self again in terms of personality.

Things turned out OK for him. He met the right girl, is now happily married and has kids. Runs his own business...

Still has his motorcycle ........but he never got back on one again. He kept the mangled machine and it sits as an ornament in his garage/shop. Actually, he cannnot ride, due to the rigid hip. But I don't think he ever had any desire to get on one again.


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