My Tasmanian Accident Tale

[Bert-Aus]

The morning of the March 17th 2014 had included about 3 hours of riding from
Richmond through the Tasman Hwy to Orford stopping for coffee and cakes.
Up the east coast road to Swansea, looking out over the Great Oyster Bay;
this road has to be travelled by moto. Turning inland we crossed over the Lake
Leake Hwy to Campbell Town and refuelled.

Turning north along the Midland Hwy and eastward again along the Esk,
through Fingal and St Marys. East of St Marys we departed the Esk choosing
the Elephant Pass Rd for lunch.
At the Elephant Pass Pancake Restaurant I ate a late lunch of Rocky Road
Pancake with ice-cream and chocolate sauce with a single glass of Coca Cola.
No more coffee on this trip, my brothers drink around 10 a day and I had
started catching them whilst away with them.
Upon leaving I took photograph’s of the restaurant and surrounds.

Out of the car park I noticed within meters the road condition was vastly
different to what we had been riding previously that day.
This road was narrow!
Steep cross fall through cambered corners, with loose gravel across the road
and occasional patches of leaf litter.

Horseshoe Bend -I decelerated and broke using my front and rear brakes,
however I miss-timed the turn and I overran with my front brake causing my
turn-in to begin late and ultimately running wide through the turn.
Coming close to the guard rail on the outside of the turn, and catching
glimpses of the valley below between the forest trees on the other side I was
unnerved by this close call.

In hind sight I should have pulled over right then and taken a moment on the side of the road.

Too impatient or embarrassed or brash…I’m not sure, I rounded the corner,
correcting the bike from the right edge of bitumen and proceeded to the next corner.
I was distracted by the guard railing barriers again,
redirecting my attention to the road ahead
-dipping left hander with an immediate right sweeper following.

At this point I was still central to the roadway and just about to run over a patch of loose gravel with leaves on it,
I panicked, applied my rear brake without my front to slow for the corner.
As I went over the leaves & loose shit, my rear locked and slid out to the right hand side;
however my body weight was already on the right hand side at this moment, my foot came off the brake & BAM!
I was ejected -highside to land on the opposite side (right) of the road.

A post (large steel section) slid across my shoulder -had I not flinched my head to the left I may not be writing this!

I had landed against a wire rope & steel post barrier, face down with my hands beneath my chest and my left knee down.

I was unaware that my moto was on top of me; all I knew was that I my entire middle section and waist HURT!
I told myself to lay still.

Wiggling my fingers -check
Wiggling my toes -check
LAY STILL

My brothers & I all had Sena headsets which helped to keep me calm for now.
I yelled out to my brothers and I could hear them reassuring me that they were coming to help.
All I could see was dirt & leaf litter crap.

My brother Rich pulled over in an instant.
Apparently he had to drop all anchors in order to not run me over, as he was behind me.
He says I disappeared off the road in a blue cloud of smoke.

My bike was upside down across my back.
The rear wheel had brushed the rear of my helmet leaving a skid mark.
Rich pulled my bike off of me and checked I was ok through my visor.
Checking my vitals via my left hand, we decided it was ok to remove my helmet.

My brother Simon (who had been in front of me) turned around and come back from ahead;
parking his bike in the fending off position just up the road from me.
He immediately got on the phone to EMS and began getting photographs of the scene.

It seemed like moments later a woman came along in her car (quite lucky considering the remote location we were in).
She pulled over & as luck would have it she had a nursing background.
This lady took her jumper off and placed it under my head so that I wasn’t just lying face down in dirt, leaves and ants.
Rich then sat with me holding my left leg across his lap as it felt as if it had
been wrapped around behind my right ear & back. He had to squat to keep it in a (somewhat) comfortable position.

Remembering the breathing techniques discussed when my wife was pregnant with our children,
I laid as still as possible, doing my best to manage the earth shattering pain that was wracking my body.
After a period of time the police attended the site, a female officer came to relieve the lady driver who had sat with me.
The police officer held my hand at this point I noticed she had a tattoo on her wrist
which gave me something to fixate my gaze on and relax somewhat.

In total, approximately an hour and half of laying still, breathing deeply without lapsing out of consciousness, the paramedics arrived on site.
The paramedic came and checked me over, in doing so my back made some disgusting crunching/ grinding sensations and noises.
This sent me OTT FARCK!
Out came the pain killers He kindly asked if he could cut my leathers, ‘all good’,
my left sleeve was promptly relieved of duty. Two morphine shots, didn’t do much, so ketamine was called into action.
Now that stuff works! I may have recreationally pursued chemical hallucinogens in my teenage years
but man this K took the cake and the most importantly the PAIN away.

Whilst having in depth discussions with ants, leaves and specks of dust beneath my face,
the paramedic made a heap of strapping from a bed sheet.
With which he promptly made a sling and support tie for my left leg.
Further relieving me of all leathers and under layers (he decided I was able to retain my underwear at this point)
a spinal board was strapped to my body.
Upon being well and truly secured to the spinal board, I was lifted from the ground and beneath the guard rail.
"1 2 3" they rotated me to face upright, to which I believe I whited out,
needing some reassurance that I was not ascending another plane
I asked if I was still breathing and conscience.
The people I could make out only appeared to have dark holes for eyes and mouths,
whilst absolutely nothing else could be seen but white; that was some scary shite.

Everyone loaded me into the waiting ambulance; the police officer,
who had sat with me and bugged to swear away the pain, accompanied me in the ambulance.
My brothers having held themselves together extremely well organised how/ where to get to home that evening and preliminary details of where I was going.
The ambulance transported me to St Mary’s (a slow gentle ride of 45mins) where a waiting airlift ambulance continued my journey to hospital.

(will continue this later)

 

[geekmaster]

I can't wait to read the rest, but at least your signature line hints at a good ending!

 

[buzzbomb]

Holy Cow, Brother! Talk about a close call. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Thank GOD you had the gear on!

I, too can't wait for the rest of the story, but this happened in March. Why are we just hearing about it now, or did I miss or forget something?

Injuries you haven't yet shared aside, you're here to tell us about it. I'm thankful for that. Wow.

 

[Bert-Aus]

Holy Cow, Brother! Talk about a close call. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Thank GOD you had the gear on!

I, too can't wait for the rest of the story, but this happened in March. Why are we just hearing about it now, or did I miss or forget something?

Injuries you haven't yet shared aside, you're here to tell us about it. I'm thankful for that. Wow.

All was posted as it happened here
but just thought I should write it out/ compose as a legible piece for reading
and to remind/ make aware of how easy riding can go wrong
More so the positive consequences of how my gear greatly improved my chances of NOT dying

 

[Bert-Aus]

(continued from first post in thread)

My helicopter ride to hospital whilst mostly uneventful was torturous;
as you can expect in the situation I was off my face on pain meds,
strapped down to transport bed with a makeshift pillow pad under my left hip,
neck brace on –only able to look at the ceiling and every bump & sway of the helo
made me acutely aware that things were out of place in my hips,
my whole mid & lower back crunched and grinded as if it were marbles in a tight fisted marble bag.

…And to think all this was wrong with me & they wouldn’t let me look out the friggin’ window!
–I mean come on I was flying back through the valleys we had spent the day riding.

I was told days later by the medical staff that they had to fly at low altitude (+/- 300ft)
above the adjacent ground level as they were cautious of air bubbles in my blood stream
(I don’t understand this but sounded a bit scary for me).
Due to this my flight south to Hobart took around an hour.

Landing in Hobart I was further loaded into another waiting Ambulance
to finish my ride to hospital (no landing platform at the hospital).
Still off my face on meds and rushed into emergency triage,
thankfully I had finally achieved instant service status!

At this point things become very hazy in my memory as to hows, whens, and whys.
In the most part my evening consisted of a number of MRI, CT and Xrays
for the Dr’s to work out the extents of my injuries.

I remember being woken in the early hours of the morning by some guy
who shifted around my bed somewhat like a tailor/ mortician.
Without saying much at all, he was friggin’measuring me!
Needless to say I flipping out with fear in my mind,
not sure whether I was dreaming, hallucinating or actually getting measured for my casket!

I had been placed into a 4 bed shared ward.
.Hours passed,
..hours of restless lying still,
..hours of shitting my pants about what had happened,
...hours of shitting my pants about what my long term prospects may be,
....hours & hours of eating myself up about how upset and frightened my wife & kids would be because of my actions.

Any movement caused the marble bag grinding through my whole mid & lower back.
My pelvis throbbed, my left knee ached, the centre of my body from armpit down
to my knees ached with a strange uncomfortable intense numbness of pain.
Daylight came with a check-up from the med team, they informed me of what
they had spent about 6 hours from the evening before doing in order to understand and attempt to rectify.

And so my actual injury list entailed
• T9, T10, T11, T12, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 spinous process fractures
• Retroperitoneal bleed
• Left hip dislocation
• Fractured acetabulum
• Left 11th rib fracture
• Transverse process fractures right L1, L2, L3, L4, L5
• Fracture left superior facet joint of L5
• Right psoas hematoma

So overnight they had relocated my left leg/ hip into the correct joint placement,
dosed me with pain meds and kept me as straight as possible.
The tailor/ mortician entered the room and betrothed me with my brace (TLSO Back Brace)
~yeah google that and you get the sexy stylish Milan versions,
mine was like the Elysium outfit,
galv plate bent around my waist,
6mm aluminium riggers running up my back to connect another galv plate bent into my arm pits
and 3 rows of elastic/ web tension points connecting a 10mm thick felt chest plate.
But that is okay cause they softened it with some foam liner that chewed off my skin when I sweated at all.

***I should state here, that I am in no way bitter towards the treatment I was given
or the staff’s attention to detail and professionalism in their work;
I am purely expressing things in such a manner as to portray to the reader/s
how I was feeling and how the levity my injuries were beginning to affect me

After my first full day in hospital I had a vision of what my near future would entail.
• Laying still as possible
• barely able to eat or drink anything due to my neck brace
• drawing mental images with the dot-to-dot ceiling tiles
• suffering through occasional spasms of pain coursing through my body
• inability to sleep due to my pain levels
• periodic skin crawlies due to pain medications
• the dread sensation of helplessness/ unknown of what I could do for myself

(will continue this later)

 

[buzzbomb]

(continued from first post in thread)

My helicopter ride to hospital whilst mostly uneventful was torturous;
as you can expect in the situation I was off my face on pain meds,
strapped down to transport bed with a makeshift pillow pad under my left hip,
neck brace on –only able to look at the ceiling and every bump & sway of the helo
made me acutely aware that things were out of place in my hips,
my whole mid & lower back crunched and grinded as if it were marbles in a tight fisted marble bag.

…And to think all this was wrong with me & they wouldn’t let me look out the friggin’ window!
–I mean come on I was flying back through the valleys we had spent the day riding.

I was told days later by the medical staff that they had to fly at low altitude (+/- 300ft)
above the adjacent ground level as they were cautious of air bubbles in my blood stream
(I don’t understand this but sounded a bit scary for me).
Due to this my flight south to Hobart took around an hour.

Landing in Hobart I was further loaded into another waiting Ambulance
to finish my ride to hospital (no landing platform at the hospital).
Still off my face on meds and rushed into emergency triage,
thankfully I had finally achieved instant service status!

At this point things become very hazy in my memory as to hows, whens, and whys.
In the most part my evening consisted of a number of MRI, CT and Xrays
for the Dr’s to work out the extents of my injuries.

I remember being woken in the early hours of the morning by some guy
who shifted around my bed somewhat like a tailor/ mortician.
Without saying much at all, he was friggin’measuring me!
Needless to say I flipping out with fear in my mind,
not sure whether I was dreaming, hallucinating or actually getting measured for my casket!

I had been placed into a 4 bed shared ward.
.Hours passed,
..hours of restless lying still,
..hours of shitting my pants about what had happened,
...hours of shitting my pants about what my long term prospects may be,
....hours & hours of eating myself up about how upset and frightened my wife & kids would be because of my actions.

Any movement caused the marble bag grinding through my whole mid & lower back.
My pelvis throbbed, my left knee ached, the centre of my body from armpit down
to my knees ached with a strange uncomfortable intense numbness of pain.
Daylight came with a check-up from the med team, they informed me of what
they had spent about 6 hours from the evening before doing in order to understand and attempt to rectify.

And so my actual injury list entailed
• T9, T10, T11, T12, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 spinous process fractures
• Retroperitoneal bleed
• Left hip dislocation
• Fractured acetabulum
• Left 11th rib fracture
• Transverse process fractures right L1, L2, L3, L4, L5
• Fracture left superior facet joint of L5
• Right psoas hematoma

So overnight they had relocated my left leg/ hip into the correct joint placement,
dosed me with pain meds and kept me as straight as possible.
The tailor/ mortician entered the room and betrothed me with my brace (TLSO Back Brace)
~yeah google that and you get the sexy stylish Milan versions,
mine was like the Elysium outfit,
galv plate bent around my waist,
6mm aluminium riggers running up my back to connect another galv plate bent into my arm pits
and 3 rows of elastic/ web tension points connecting a 10mm thick felt chest plate.
But that is okay cause they softened it with some foam liner that chewed off my skin when I sweated at all.

***I should state here, that I am in no way bitter towards the treatment I was given
or the staff’s attention to detail and professionalism in their work;
I am purely expressing things in such a manner as to portray to the reader/s
how I was feeling and how the levity my injuries were beginning to affect me

After my first full day in hospital I had a vision of what my near future would entail.
• Laying still as possible
• barely able to eat or drink anything due to my neck brace
• drawing mental images with the dot-to-dot ceiling tiles
• suffering through occasional spasms of pain coursing through my body
• inability to sleep due to my pain levels
• periodic skin crawlies due to pain medications
• the dread sensation of helplessness/ unknown of what I could do for myself

(will continue this later)

Just. Damn! You know me and my word walls. I have no words that are strong enough to express my feelings at this moment.

All my aches are aching, just thinking about what you just described.

You've my love and best wishes as a fellow Rider. To you and those who love you.

 

[Bert-Aus]

So for those who want to see what all of those words entail,
I have posted some pictures here (no gore shots)

just photos of my accident during the time we waited for the ambulance to attend,
and me in hospital with bruising and braces etc.

What should be NOTED by anyone is I was wearing full leather 2 piece suit with boots, gloves and helmet.
The ONLY damage to my skin was the puncture to my left butt cheek where my femur popped out briefly.

In fact, I am of the firm opinion, that had my bike NOT landed on top of me
I may well of been unharmed!

And further more my leathers only received at one point to my jacket (centre of the back)
a scratch approx. 3mm across and 1-2mm deep from my bike
Every where else my leathers were unscathed by the accident
it was only the paramedics who destroyed my leathers when they cut them off of me
-but that is fine, after all that is why I pay for insurance

Another thing to take away from my tale too
-the scenery shots, portray how easily it is for an accident to occur
and a injured rider does not show up that well on the side of the road
in which case riding with friends or group situation in less travelled areas is something to consider

 

[VRIIClubby]

So so lucky (and unlucky) Bert to have been able to type this after that!

Those wire guard rails are scary items when your on a bike!

Good to see you back on the saddle mate!

 

[Bert-Aus]

So so lucky (and unlucky) Bert to have been able to type this after that!

Those wire guard rails are scary items when your on a bike!

Good to see you back on the saddle mate!

Indeed! Sometimes I get a bit off colour when considering there may have been more than one piece of me following that incident

 

[Bert-Aus]

Six years later update:
Well I must have had my guardian angel daughters looking over me that day; as here I am still riding, fitter than prior to my accident and generally doing ok.

I have a regular tune up at the massage therapists every 6 weeks or so, I also have a daily stretch routine and regular exercise to keep myself flexible and pain free.
But then who past the age of 40 doesn't require some sort of servicing to keep themselves limber.
I am very grateful to all the emergency service, hospital, and therapeutic staff along the way
...eternally grateful to my brothers for taking care of me that day
...my inlaws and parents for helping my family through
...my family for being there

here's a happy picture to wrap up with (my current steed)