Wow Andrew, what a horror story! Good to hear about his amazing recovery.
I like the photo of day 5 for all the obvious reasons.
Wiliam
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Fildes [mailto:afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: zaterdag 21 januari 2012 11:27
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] (OT) Need that Positive Energy Again
Good luck. My experience in the last week has been positive so I hope it
rubs off.
Must be a #2 son thing.
After nine years of riding 42km per day (26 miles) to and from work, my
second son Chris was hit by a delivery van on Friday afternoon 8 days ago.
The screen in the emergency room displayed a grim brevity - 'Cyclist vs.
Truck - high speed'. The impact was a straight 80kph (50mph) from behind.
He was quite astonishingly lucky - four broken ribs and a punctured lung,
three cracked vertebrae and a lot of scrapes. Helmets are compulsory here,
thank goodness. But head-butting the scenery at that speed has implications
- in this case some contusions of the forebrain. He was agitated and
confused going into intensive care and lost three days memory. His post
traumatic amnesia is classified as severe but he seems to be coming out of
it very well. His level of fitness is extremely high and that may have saved
him. In fact he rather annoyed them in the intensive care unit by getting up
and going for a stroll. Being confused, he tended to get lost.
Last weekend was possibly the worst of my life. I feel like we've dodged a
very large bullet indeed. I'm still a bit shaky thinking about it. He's now
in a rehab centre and because of his earlier tendency to wander, they've put
in a locked, high dependency ward for a few days at first. I hope he takes
time to take a close look at the others in there - the serious brain injury
patients. And thinks what might have been. He should be over the short term
memory problem quite soon. I hope.
One of the best things I did was to take a few pix each day - #1 son in the
UK said he thought it was in bad taste but was seriously relieved when he
saw the smile on day three and promptly posted it on his Facebook wall.
Small gallery here -
http://www.pbase.com/afildes/chrishospital
We live in a semi-rural area but the police were there in five, the
paramedics in eight and he was inside one of the best trauma units in the
country in 80 minutes - and it's nearly 50k away. Any further out or any
sicker and they'd have used a helo. Car registration here is quite expensive
because it includes compulsory accident insurance - all medical costs are
covered and they'll pay him 80% of his average pay for the forseeable
future, even if you're a cyclist or pedestrian. It's a decent system. There
were nice touches like the paramedics waiting to talk to us at the emergency
bay about the circumstances. They were quite surprised that he survived at
all.
Oh - and yes, the driver stopped. He's has been charged. Careless driving
occasioning GBH. He'd driven for four hours across the state without a break
and didn't see him. The cop I spoke to later was a little underimpressed by
that.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 21/01/2012, at 4:40 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Well, once again the call goes out for prayers, positive energy, good
thoughts, etc., for No. 2 Son, Benjamin, who will be admitted to the Maine
Medical Center on Sunday, and on Monday will undergo an aerobic valve
replacement.
--
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