Why I wear a helmet...
Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 4:09 pm
Lead up is that Had a car wreck March 31st when a woman rear ended me at 50 mph totaling the car. I came out of that with minor cuts from glass and the cat scan & MRI were clear....I mention this because while I walked away from THAT one nine days later on April 9th I was less than a mile from that location on my Intruder 1400 on a winding road that I am quite aware of why the speed limit is 25mph and why I was moving at that rate when the front tire slid on some gravel and my attempt to correct things resulted in the hand grip hitting my chest and me hitting the ground and sliding to a stop....I laid a couple minutes as a couple cars drove by before getting up in big time pain to assess the situation...By then two cars stopped and while a man and a woman moved the bike off the road I took off my helmet to find a crack and major scrapping on the side....Police came and while EMT's are checking me out and insisting I go to the hospital I am pleading with the officer not to have the bike towed since I live less than a mile away and had a neighbor on the way to pick it up...After EMT's stating they could not force me to go and telling the officer I was coherent and able-bodied, and fruitless attempts to start the bike since fluid was all on the ground I was at a point where I believe the pure adrenaline I was running on wore off and I collapsed...Then I was on a ride to the hospital to discover I had 8 fractured ribs, a lacerated liver and a collapsed lung..Was "Life Flighted" to Pittsburgh where 3 days layer they overdosed me on opiates and took THREE Narcian treatments to bring me back...
My point being in sharing this that even at a low rate of speed the damage was massive to me left me and left me even MORE grateful I had that helmet on.
I have met folks who were not as fortunate as I. I prayed for someone who was finally taken off life support and the only major trauma was to the head....My brother died in 1977 in his f-250 while 3 other people with him (yes that many teens in a truck likely was a factor) suffered minor to moderate injuries...Again his biggest injury was to the head...while no reason for a helmet it's Just an example of how little the brain can endure when it is assaulted...
I was in the hospital for about two months. Then a week after release went back for another week for a tube to drain fluid out of the chest wall...Followed by 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotic treatment three times a day...
I am all for the freedom of the individual EVEN with seat belts (except for kids) but in my opinion a helmet is a MUST before even moving down the driveway...
Thanks for taking time to read this & God Bless all of you...
My point being in sharing this that even at a low rate of speed the damage was massive to me left me and left me even MORE grateful I had that helmet on.
I have met folks who were not as fortunate as I. I prayed for someone who was finally taken off life support and the only major trauma was to the head....My brother died in 1977 in his f-250 while 3 other people with him (yes that many teens in a truck likely was a factor) suffered minor to moderate injuries...Again his biggest injury was to the head...while no reason for a helmet it's Just an example of how little the brain can endure when it is assaulted...
I was in the hospital for about two months. Then a week after release went back for another week for a tube to drain fluid out of the chest wall...Followed by 6 weeks of intravenous antibiotic treatment three times a day...
I am all for the freedom of the individual EVEN with seat belts (except for kids) but in my opinion a helmet is a MUST before even moving down the driveway...
Thanks for taking time to read this & God Bless all of you...