Just a regular Saturday... until someone didn't look

It was just a regular Saturday road ride, mid-winter chill meant we left home around lunch time and planned on a 2.5 hours loop. From our place we headed out down the Fernleigh track before skirting round the edge of Lake Macquarie and climbing over the Rhonda Rd hill to Barnsley and West Wallsend.

Coming up to the George Booth roundabout we discussed the route and opted for heading home through Minmi rather than the Link Rd purely because the Link Rd’s shoulder disappears at each roundabout forcing you out into 90km/hr traffic each time.

After a steep descent into Minmi, we turned right onto Minmi Rd and headed towards Jesmond/Wallsend. The rolling hills are hard work but I was feeling good so was a about 10m ahead of time coming down the last descent before the rise to the roundabout where the turn is to the tip. There’s a left turn lane at this point and I remember moving right to ensure I conveyed the message I was continuing straight, I also remember registering a green oncoming car coming up the right turn lane. After this it becomes I little blurry, I remember realising they weren’t stopping and the feeling of disbelief. I remember yelling a certain expletive at the top of my voice, and I remember braking and waiting for impact. I remember the sickening feeling of the car hitting my rear wheel, which was flung left – almost like a washout on a mtb corner. I remember the feeling of my face hitting the road, and I remember thinking that about broken collarbones – possible subconsciously aware I’d taken impact through my arm.

The memories become clear again with me in the gutter against a low metal guardrail, the bike was on top of me, and suddenly the rear tube exploded with a definite bang. Tim came into view, and lifted the bike off me. I looked over expecting to see the driver rushing over but there was no-one, the first thing I said was “they didn’t stop!”. The pain hadn’t hit yet, Tim was asking if I was ok and I remember saying “I’m not sure yet” as I managed to get into a sitting position. I looked down and saw that I was naturally supporting my left arm with my right and my left arm had two obvious areas of deformity – most definitely a broken arm.

Some one came running over asking if we were alright, at first we thought it was the driver but soon established it was someone who lived on the corner and had been working on his roof when he heard the accident – his wife was on their home phone to emergency services and he relayed the situation to her.

Not used to being the one in the bed!

The fifteen minutes it took the wonderful Boolaroo Ambos to arrive were some of the longest in my life. The pain had hit and the broken arm had the shakes, we organised to leave our bikes with the couple who’d called the ambulance so Tim could come with me in the ambulance. That siren was one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard, and the lovely Erin from soon had a cardboard support under my broken arm, fentanyl up my nose and morphine through a drip in the good arm. With pain relief on board I was able to move onto the ambulance stretcher and loaded into the car. By this stage the crew knew I was both a nurse and final year medical student so when they weren’t overly surprised when I joined in discussions about what classification I was going to be on their system, I agreed that with the speeds involved (easily 30km/hr for me and that or more for the car) I was a trauma call – a system which pre-warns the hospital that a patient is coming in with potentially multiple and/or life-threatening injuries. While it seemed only to be my arm, pain from one major injury can distract or mask others.

So there I was flat on my back, c-spine collar on and enroute to John Hunter Hospital – my place of work and study. As much as I have always been mortified at the of being a patient where I work, now that the shit had really hit the fan I was oddly comforted by the familiar surroundings, processes and people – even when they were cutting my clothes off and log-rolling me to survey me for other injuries.

Unfortunately Saturday afternoon was hectic in ED and while I was wheeled straight in I had to wait several hours for xrays, still flat on my back with a collar on – only able to see a very small portion of the ceiling. I’d sent Tim home to have a shower and get dressed, and bring back in some stuff for me so when I started feeling sick there was no-one around.

I buzzed the nurse as the nausea built up but no-one came, just as I was wondering how I would roll myself over to vomit the porter came to get me for xray and the nausea settled a touch. I was wheeled into xray and the radiographer asked my name only to be answered with “I’m going to vomit”. With the bed still only half in the room I had 5 people log-rolling me (to protect my spine in case of spinal injury) so I could vomit in a cup over the side of the bed.

Then I was rolled again and slid over to the x-ray table… it was odd being on the other side having rolled so many patients over the years. The xrays started off ok as they did my spine and chest to rule out other injuries, then they did my arm and having them move it made me cry with pain. The lovely ED doctor gave me more IV fentanyl and in doing so whacked his head super hard on the xray machine, I did offer to share the fentanyl with him but he assured me he was ok.

Back out into bed 10 and the nausea hit again, luckily they had cleared my spine of injury so with my collar off and now sitting up I proceeded to dry retch for the next couple of hours despite all the antiemetic medications they gave me. The orthopaedic registrar came to see me and explained I was going to need surgery because I had a fracture of my distal radius with dislocation of the distal radioulnar joint – a combination special enough to have its own name Galeazzi fracture (I’d broken my arm and dislocated part of my wrist joint). He also explained that I was unlikely to get to theatre that evening so they were going to do a reduction and backslab in ED and consent me for theatre in the morning.

The reduction and backslab was an interesting experience, they performed a Biers block which is were they put a tourniquet around my upper arm above the fracture, then injected local anaesthetic into a vein in the hand of the fractured arm. This make the whole arm go numb then two burly orthopods pulled my hand which the ED doctor stabilised my upper arm… Tim got a bit faint at this point as my arm was stretchy and mobile in places it shouldn’t be and I could bones grinding. However it wasn’t painful and soon I had a plaster backslab on which gave me much more pain relief, as everything was kept immobile.

damage to left brake hood - where my hand was

Then it was off to the ward for a night of very little sleep and up to theatre the next morning. In theatre the bolted on a titanium plate to fix the fracture and relocated the wrist, the it was back to the ward for a second night of no sleep (but at least it was an awesome stage of le Tour!) and some IV antibiotics to ward off infection.

And so Monday morning dawned an it was supposed to be day one of my orthopaedic rotation, but instead of being at the 7am x-ray meeting I was an inpatient on the ward and my x-ray were being presented and discussed!

I’m now home and hoping that thing heals super quickly, I feel incredibly lucky that I got hit and ONLY have a broken arm. I also feel quite shaken that someone basically tired to kill me in broad daylight, drove off leaving me in the gutter and is unlikely to ever get caught. I try and make safe decisions cycling, I choose quieter roads or those with a wide shoulder or bike lane, I wear bright colours, I have good lights and night and of course wear a helmet. Unfortunately that’s all I can do, and it wasn’t enough last Saturday.

Thanks to everyone who was or is part of my care, who has sent me messages, flowers, food, balloons and positive thoughts. Thanks to Cheeky who are looking after my roadie to get me back on a trainer ASAP. Please ride safe out there and please spread the word that car drivers just need to look for bikes.

If anyone is wondering, the accident happened at about 2:30pm on 6/07/13 at the corner of Minmi Rd and Warkworth St Maryland. The car involved was bottle green, perhaps a Hyundai excel or similar around 10 years old with a small rear spoiler. I think there was a front passenger as well. I swerved and made it almost passed the car, meaning they hit my with the drivers front corner. Anyone with information can contact the Waratah police 4926 6599