For now...

May 27th at around 2:40 in the afternoon I was struck broadside by an SUV as I traveled through an intersection.

I blacked out upon impact and the following is as told by the eyewitness that had to make evasive maneuvers in order to miss me. And I thank him for not giving me a second blow. The bike and I ripped the front bumper off of the SUV in the impact and glanced off in the general direction I was traveling for about 100 feet. The front wheel clipped the curb and cartwheeled into a dirt ditch and I went the opposite direction, rolling like a log 12 or 13 times before coming to a rest.

Paramedics responded and evaluated my condition. I was stable and waited in an ambulance while the emergency workers spoke to dispatch to decide which trauma hospital would best be able to handle my case. CareFlite arrived on scene and transported me to Methodist hospital in Dallas.

After a brief stay in the ER I was taken for xrays/CAT scan and then on to surgery to address the injury to my foot. During the accident it appears that my left foot peg shattered and then skewered my foot, ripping the ligaments and tendons form the bones and pushing them out the other side. The heel of my foot was severely damaged and there was a partial de-gloving of the skin as well. I took in 3 units of blood during the two hour surgery and was returned to a recovery room. I needed two more units of blood to catch me up from the loss and I was left to heal.

Over the next two weeks the orthopedic and plastic surgeon deliberated on how they would stop the foot from decaying, as it was doing so very rapidly. I was put into hyperbaric therapy for 2 hours every day in a vain effort to deliver more oxygen directly to the tissue. I underwent another two hour surgery to clean out the bad tissue to give the healthy tissue a chance.

In the third week I was told that they were out of ideas and besides something miraculous happening, we would have to remove the foot. 3 days later a plastic surgeon doing a surgery in the hospital was told about my case and came to have a look.

This surgeon didn't see any reason to remove the foot and was prompt to cancel all the weird treatments and took me into another two hour surgery where he removed anything that even looked like unhealthy tissue. The following week I was in a 12 hour surgery where the surgeon removed a muscle from my abdomen, to form into a new heel, and a skin graft from my thigh the size of a standard piece of notebook paper.

After 5 weeks in the hospital and another 5 weeks at home I returned to work in a wheelchair. Walking is in the very near future and I will make a full recovery.

I was wearing durable pants, helmet, goggles, and boots. I will walk away from this with no lasting ailments. In the future my equipment will stay a priority ahead of what type of bike I ride.

Somebody was looking out for me and I will always take preventative measures including safety equipment and rider training technique refreshers to make his job a little easier.

Ride safe and for crying out loud, please, watch for bikers.