Turkey Ride and Injury
Mike and I went for a ride on Wednesday that got stretched out a good bit longer than planned.
We went out for a ride on some new trails that are being built locally and about thirty minutes into the ride we came across this old cement dam. It was about 25 feet long, 4 to 5 feet high and under a foot wide. Here’s me making my way across it…
Mike took this picture than grabbed his bike to ride across. A few feet in he lost his balance and fell off. The fall didn’t look to bad but he immediately started yelling. I asked if he was playing around and he assured me he wasn’t and started yelling about his ankle. I ran back across the dam and sure enough, his ankle was not in good shape. Mike was laying on his back and his left foot was laying to the left on the ground… about 90 degrees from where it should be.
I pulled out my phone and dialed 911 and gave all the information and directions I could then the lady said I would hear back shortly and we hung up.
At this point I went down and sat with Mike and we made sure his toes, fingers, legs, etc were all working. The pain was obviously pretty bad but he was taking it pretty well… way better than I deal with pain. At this point I would have been screaming like a girl, passed out or both. But considering the situation, he was in pretty good shape. His ankle was broken but there was no major wounds and no blood, so it became a waiting game.
Within a couple minutes I had a captain from the rescue team call me back and we began working on the best way to pinpoint our location. This isn’t so easy when you’re thirty minutes into a singletrack ride on unfamiliar terrain. Thankfully my phone kept fritzing out so I grabbed Mike’s iPhone and called back on 911 and the lady immediately pinpointed our location because, apparently, the iPhone is GPS enabled. After that she started relaying our coordinates and told us to sit tight and wait for the rescue team to show up.
After about twenty minutes the first two guys showed up and started working with Mike… taking his vitals, asking him questions, etc. Then they sent me out to wave down more EMS on a fireroad about 100 yards further down the singletrack.
From this point on there was a lot of waiting. More cops and emergency workers showed up, totally about a dozen. They were with Mike waiting for the right vehicle and enough emergency crew to show up on site. During this time they wouldn’t let me do much so I grabbed the bikes and stashed them in one of the cop’s truck, kept Mike’s family updated and did a lot of standing around.
Once everyone was in place they got Mike on one of those orange sleds and eight guys carried him out of the singletrack and got him loaded on the all-terrain vehicle that could get him out to a waiting ambulance. Then from there it was a ride to the hospital and some morphine.
Once at the hospital they checked everything and did the whole xray routine. His ankle was dislocated and broken. So they knocked him out, relocated the ankle and set his leg with screws and plates. The docs said he’ll be out for three to four months, but they’re expecting a full recovery.
All in all, the whole ordeal was pretty bad but could have been a lot worse. Mike fell within a foot of a jagged pipe sticking out of the ground, so a broken ankle is way better than a puncture wound when you’re out in the woods. It was also nice that we were together and his iPhone had GPS enabled. And I can’t say enough good things about the emergency workers that showed up fast and took great care of Mike.
If you’re looking for lessons learned… I would say to ride with a buddy whenever possible and have your cell phone easily accessible. Both of those made the whole thing a lot easier on Mike.
Be safe out there…
November 26th, 2007 at 11:59 am
[…] Over the Thanksgiving holiday I went for a ride with a buddy of mine on some new local trails. We had never been on these trails before and about thirty minutes into the ride he took a pretty bad spill and snapped his ankle. You can read about the whole ordeal here. […]
November 26th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Glad to hear that Mike is going to be okay. He’s lucky you were there.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Wow! A little scary, but sounds like the rescue workers were pros at going into the woods and were really prepared to Mike in the best way possible. I was thinking through the whole story, “good thing Tim was there” so, yes, always ride with a buddy and take a phone.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
An iPhone, Donna, an iPhone. Also useful as an emergency splint, as per famous YouTube spoof ad.
Seriously, though, riding with a buddy is worth it. I do a lot of rides on my own and this sort of incident shows me why I shouldn’t.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I echo Carlton … I too ride alone without a phone. I usually post where I am going in an email or on my site but really … it would be forever for someone to realize I am in trouble. They should make bike transponders that you set off when in trouble.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I do a lot of rides on my own to but I always have my cell and tell my wife where I’m going, but yeah it could take awhile for people to track me down.
Oh yeah, and I don’t do dumbass things like ride across dams when I’m alone.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
All is well with the leg! I’m recovering at home right now, can’t do much and I’m getting a little cabin fever.
I rarely ride without a friend with me. I’ll go to a popular trail where your are no more than a mile away from someone but I also won’t go to that same trail early in the morning when I know there won’t be anyone else around.
I’m so glad Tim was with me, he stayed calm and made sure the EMS people made it to me. It’ll be a while before I go riding again, but when I do, I’ll have my iPhone and a friend with me.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:39 am
[…] bad bike crash in 1992 in Moab that had me ATV’ed and later helicoptered to a hospital. But, this story over on the Crooked Cog site, while not a life threatening injury, brings to light again what you […]
November 27th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Glad to hear Mike is doing good! I see that my blog entry mentioning your story already is linked above in the comments, but wanted to mention specifically here: for those who often ride in areas with no cell phone coverage, check out a SPOT Satellite Messenger: http://findmespot.com. This little gizmo lets you request both emergency as well as non-emergency help (you define who that is). There is never cell phone service where I ride, so this is a pretty nice insurance item for me. I consider it just that: my riding-specific insurance policy
November 27th, 2007 at 2:47 am
Okay, so that’s odd. I totally am sure this is all accurate, but the iPhone doesn’t have GPS. So how did the woman get the coordinates?
I mean, Apple says it has no GPS, there are no GPS settings on the phone, etc. Hmmmmm. Secret feature or was the signal on the phone strong enough that they could use E911’s triangulation to find the location based on three or more cell towers?
November 27th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Solo rides=chicken rides for me; especially night solo rides!
November 29th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
What a crazy story. I cringed about 5 times reading it.
I’m happy you’re doing better Mike. I always bring my cell phone and tell my wife where I’m going when I ride alone. This story reminds me why it’s a good idea.
December 7th, 2007 at 9:50 am
It always amazes me how helpful and caring EMS rescue workers are. Kudos to the Lynchburg Fire Department. I convinced, my next phone will be GPS enabled.
Mike, I hope you’re doing well.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:28 am
[…] Worst: Turkey Ride and Injury […]