NEVRA Pays Off for Rider Safety
I’ve preached time and time again about the safety of Never Riding Alone. It comes with the territory of riding that one minute you’re ripping along, then in an instant it can all change and you find yourself taking inventory on the function of each part of your body as you try to unpack what just happened. That is how my weekend went just 3 weeks ago. I was ripping down one of our trails with a few other local riders when I found myself getting thrown over the bike and hard into the ground. I heard a crunch as I hit and I knew right away in the process of taking off my backpack that something wasn’t right. What I was hoping was a twisted or damaged strap on the pack actually turned out to be a four piece break on my right collar bone that I discovered when I ran my left hand over my shoulder. While it was certain I was hurt, I was able to stay composed knowing that my group was right there with me. Short of breath and fighting to stay conscious, my group caught up and saw the yard sale. Me here, bike there, backpack over there and contents of the backpack scattered about.
After the other riders assessed the situation and my condition, we started taking action. One of the riders with me, Charlie, fashioned a sling/splint out of my hand saw from my backpack and some rope he had in his pack. Brian road ahead to pick the best path forward to get back down to a vehicle. Fortunately where we were at only required about a half mile walk to the trail head. As we walked I found it hard to breath and just chalked it up to anxiety or adrenaline. I’d later learn that this was because of three broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung. Another rider in our group, Brock, was able to drive me back into town where we met up with my wife then headed to the hospital to get x-rays and make a surgery plan.
In the hospital it became apparent that the doctors and nurses cared less about my collar bone pushing my skin up and more concerned about my lung. After a CT scan we learned that my right lung was collapsed at the top and then partially down by a couple of the rib fractures, in total a little over 10%. This is good news because I later learned that at 15% they go in with a chest tube. At this point they admitted me and for the first time in my life I had to spend the night in the hospital hooked up to an IV, heart monitors and everything else. The hospital is serious stuff, they come in about every hour to poke you with a needle or fill you full of pills, then in the morning have the audacity to ask you how you slept. They liked me so much, they decided to keep me another night to make sure my lung would improve. I finally got release about noon on Tuesday, 41 hours after my arrival.
The first time I gave this thing a go in the ER room I hit a high score of 750 :( Upon my release I was up to 2750, not bad for still having three broken ribs
Because I live in Wyoming, specialists are few and far between, so it took a couple days of calling around, scheduling and vetting to find someone I trusted to put me back together. Finally 12 days after the accident, I had surgery to put the collar bone back together and was finally on the mend. What better way to celebrate than to wake up the following morning and go to the final WORRA race of the year. I’m far from professional, but I’m a rider none the less and live and breath this sport. I will always strive to support the riding community through my involvement in the racing community and in my continued efforts to grow the NEVRA community.
Out spectating the last WORRA race of the season at the sand dunes in Rolling Hills, WY. I wasn’t any help to anybody, but it was good to be around familiar faces.
One week out from surgery - Been a while since I’ve busted myself up, so it was kinda cool to learn they just glue you back together and you don’t have the stitches to worry about.
If not for riding with a group or at least one other person, injuries or even bike malfunctions can turn an obstacle into an ordeal. Riding a dirtbike can get you into some very remote areas, areas that are sometimes impassable by most other vehicles. Add to that, there is a very good chance that there is limited cell service in a lot of riding areas. This adds to the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. I’ve ridden that particular trail 100 times. I helped build that trail. Familiarity is not a guarantee for safety and while I’m sure there are some other lessons I can learn from this experience, I can only hope to echo the importance of NEVRA and Never Riding Alone.
