Helmets , crashing and riding alone

[Flow-Rider]

Yeah, I had three options…

Within 6 days… do an incision over the sinus and pull the dent… or an ear to ear peel my face off, pull the dent, then put my face back on.

Or just leave it.

I chose the later.

As for whether the helmet saved my life… I’m not sure, although I am definitely alive.

Part of me wonders whether the helmet disintegrating directly over the fracture caused the fracture.

Part of me wonders whether the helmet disintegrating directly over the fracture saved my life.

Don’t know… but I think helmets are good.

If the helmet has broken you can safely say it has absorbed some energy from the impact, to what extent I have no idea. BTW, one thing I notice with a lot of people is that the chin strap isn't tight enough. I found with losing a lot of weight that I had lost some flab around my face and had to keep on adjusting the chin strap tighter.

 

[sufferthesinglespeed]

Pretty topical thread this one.
We had a guy crash really badly here a few months back and luckily he was in a group who then too care of everything.
Fractured vertebrae and the likes. Was very lucky not to be paralysed. The fact of being in company certainly helped with the recovery and with the immediate first aid. One set of trails is a bit rabbit warrenish for the people that don't know it, which is the people who don't ride it. And that's where he crashed.
This happening led to the discussion between me and my riding buddy(when I ride in company) about what happens when and if the stack is too bad to get up and make it home. I'm calling him and he's calling me because neither of our wives will know exactly where we are. And this is assuming we know where we are and can use our phones. It's something at least.
I've had some fairly big stacks that have hurt but never really taken too much skin off or blood out. Been slammed to the ground on rocks and belted into trees and generally only had hard body shots. Been lucky with that I guess. And almost all of them have been when I've been riding solo, which is most of the time.
I do think about accidents but I don't dwell on it. It's like anything else, if you think the worst it'll probably happen. But it's also a risk with riding a bike that you will be hurt at some stage.
No question from me about the value of helmets.

 

[Lazmo]

You sure this life you think you're living isn't just a long dream?



At least you were smart enough to go to hospital, I managed what would have been considered a severe head injury (CSF drained out of my nose following head strike) and didn't bother with a dr let alone a hospital - she'll be right mate, just need a panadol and a good lie down......, so we all get a bit of luck now and then....

My life has been fun... for sure... touch wood, hope it keeps on keeping.

Don't worry I was pretty hurt... I was foetal position on the ground for a fair while... never unconscious though. My neck was hurting the most initially, I thought it was broken, but after about 10 minutes that stopped killing me... so my wife who is a first aider, worked her way all over, and I could move everything ok and only my finger was obviously broken. We thought it would take ages to get an ambo to where we were, so I spent a bit of time making sure I could walk and balance... then pushed the bikes to the nearest fire road and we rode out... luckily it was nearly all downhill. Got to Trailmix, Justin laughed at me (as usual) and called 000. They moved the display bike and I lay bleeding on the fake grass till the ambos arrived.

I was pretty lucky, I was going fast and had a lot of air... it was a big off and I hit really hard.

I've calmed down a bit since then... but I'm still riding.

And yeah the ebike discussion is a type of dream... they're called nightmares.

 

[betadine]

I just use one of these it is more accessible for a first responder and also I can wear it when on other outdoor activities:

View attachment 324255

I ride alone most times and often 3-4 times a week in the dark before work. I always wear one of these. The other thing I have is live track on my my Garmin edge 520. It sends a link to whoever you want, they click on it and get a real time location with pace etc so they can see if your moving or if you've stopped for a period of time, track you down. Just need to be sure that I'm where I said I was going!

 

[Mywifesirrational]

Is this the one where the fold your face down to reconstruct the bones?

That's the one, not sure if they fold down or pull the scalp back, never seen it done and patients never remember. I also have no idea how they pull the bones back out flush with the skull?

That is a serious conclusion jump!

How do you know that that the helmet helped? Let alone that it helped enough to prevent a fatal head injury?

I wouldn't be bothered for most people here, buy you MWI, are usually pretty careful about solid conclusions on very limited data. The clear and obvious possibility, given the damage to the helmet, is the vents if they break laterally, can concentrate the load on a single point (the remaining largest body of polystyrene remaining) - fracture seems to be aligned with the frontal edge of the helmet.

Indeed it is a massive conclusion jump. My supervisor specialises in head trauma - concussions, skull fractures and death are his thing as well as TBI trauma research out of several hospitals, he's also a keen cyclist. I've reviewed a lot of his work, sciency methodology practice for me, free proof reading for him, a fractured skull with a helmet, generally (but obviously not always) will be catastrophic without one. None of the cycling based patients in the TBI clinic where helmet less, those ones died on the side of a road sadly or in intensive care later on.

But like I said, if your going to fracture a skull, frontal sinus is by far the best place to do it as it has a built in crush zone much like a helmet, hence maybe the helmet made no difference.

Yeah, I had three options…

Within 6 days… do an incision over the sinus and pull the dent… or an ear to ear peel my face off, pull the dent, then put my face back on.

Or just leave it.

I chose the later.

If surgery isn't a must, probably a good decision to avoid, patients seem to take a long time to fully recover from it, lots of headaches, memory issues, concentration that sort of thing... although may be related to concussion or anesthesia?

 

[russell1600]

Pretty topical thread this one.
We had a guy crash really badly here a few months back and luckily he was in a group who then too care of everything.
Fractured vertebrae and the likes. Was very lucky not to be paralysed. The fact of being in company certainly helped with the recovery and with the immediate first aid. One set of trails is a bit rabbit warrenish for the people that don't know it, which is the people who don't ride it. And that's where he crashed.
This happening led to the discussion between me and my riding buddy(when I ride in company) about what happens when and if the stack is too bad to get up and make it home. I'm calling him and he's calling me because neither of our wives will know exactly where we are. And this is assuming we know where we are and can use our phones. It's something at least.
I've had some fairly big stacks that have hurt but never really taken too much skin off or blood out. Been slammed to the ground on rocks and belted into trees and generally only had hard body shots. Been lucky with that I guess. And almost all of them have been when I've been riding solo, which is most of the time.
I do think about accidents but I don't dwell on it. It's like anything else, if you think the worst it'll probably happen. But it's also a risk with riding a bike that you will be hurt at some stage.
No question from me about the value of helmets.

hi mate - just wondering about your mate who fractured a broken vertebrae. How did he go post recovery? Did he get back on the bike? I've just (on the weekend) sustained a fractured C1 and C7 vertebrae due to a silly crash on a local trail which saw me go head first into a tree. I only ride XC and see my self getting back on the bike however I don't know if my confidence on descents will ever come back to the same degree, especially on tight tracks...time will tell.

 

[safreek]

If he was riding an ebike he'd be dead.

If he was riding an ebike I guess he would be dead to us anyway :applouse: