What was your most memorable Dirt Bike Related trip to the ER?

AE448
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7/9/2020 7:08am
This is a long one, but it's the first time I've described the whole ordeal. Memorial day, 2013. I stayed up all night doing an engine...
This is a long one, but it's the first time I've described the whole ordeal.

Memorial day, 2013.
I stayed up all night doing an engine swap in my son's RM85, and my friend that does our suspension offered to revalve it and freshen everything up. By the time I finished assembling everything and turned in for bed, it was well past midnight. I am not a night person, and this fact would come back to haunt me.

The next day my son was flying around the local track in Tulare, I planned on staying for a bit before heading to work. He disappeared on the other side of the track, but didn't re-appear. I figured he stopped to help some kid up that fell down. A minute or so later I still hadn't seen him, but I noticed there were several other adults running, with purpose, toward the area that he was in. An odd feeling crept over me and I began running to that side of the track.

When I arrived my son was laying by the side of the track with several adults crowded around him. The crash occurred in a section with high speed rollers, 5th gear pretty well wound out on his 85. Still, unless someone cut him off, there was no reason that he would crash there. Perplexed, I asked him how he was doing. I vaguely remember him telling me he hurt all over, and that his back really hurt. He also told me he had no idea why he crashed.

Confused, I walked over to look at the bike. What I saw sent chills through my body, and I immediately felt ill.


If you look closely, you can see that the top bolts for the triple clamps are missing. In an instant, I knew what happened. In my sleep deprived state, I neglected to tighten the triple clamp bolts. The crash was my fault entirely.

A bystander told me what happened, he said my son was flying through the rollers, then the bike simply exploded like it hit a land mine, launching my boy 30+ feet straight up in the air. The clamp had given way on one roller, and when the front tire touched down on the next one, it was pointing hard to the left, not straight ahead. The front end of the bike stopped immediately, ripping the front axle's nut clean off while bending the axle. Instantly ejecting my son, the bike continued to spin in the air, eventually landing upside down on the rear tire with so much force it ripped the shock shaft out of the piston.

The consensus was that he needed a trip to the ER, and I decided that since he was able to walk, I would just drive him there. He was still hunched over, complaining mostly of back pain, but all his appendages were functioning. On the drive to the hospital, I asked him to describe exactly what hurt, and where it hurt. Once he did so I told him he had a broken back, as the pinpointed burning sensation he described was telling to me. He said no way, it couldn't be that bad. I was really hoping that he was correct and I was wrong.

Unfortunately, the x-ray showed compression fractures in T-6 and T-8. Sometimes it really sucks to be right, and this was one of those times. While waiting at our local hospital, they had him hooked up to a bunch of monitors, but one of the monitors keep sounding an alarm and the nurse would run back in, check his heart rate, look at him funny, and walk back out. After about three times she asked if he normally had a low heart rate, as the 40-45 bpm was freaking the instruments out. I said that between motocross, judo and wrestling, he was in pretty darn good shape, and had a normal resting heart rate in the low to mid 30's. They took the finger monitor off and told me to let them know if something was happening. Then they ordered up an ambulance to take him to the hospital in Fresno. I met him there.

In Fresno they x-rayed him again and found that T-9 was also fractured. They ordered a CT scan for his head and a neurologist decided he'd be staying the night there so they could continue to check his vitals. Fortunately I was able to talk the doctor into letting me stay with my son.

I asked my son about the accident, and he remembered it all. He said the wheel kept turning to the left when it would contact the next roller until it was way too far to control and bike simply launched him straight up; it felt like he was higher than the roof of a house. On the way back to earth, he ended up going in head first. At this point in life my fifteen year old had been a very competitive judo fighter for eight years, having already won multiple state and national titles. He was also very adept at doing what we call a "judo roll," which is just a shoulder roll. When he was just a couple years into judo, I adopted a practice of chucking him up in the air so he could figure out a way to safely roll out of it. Turns out that was very good practice, as he hit the ground and went straight into a judo roll. Although the impact was enough to break his back despite wearing a RXR chest protector, we have no doubt that without his practice in falling through judo, he'd be dead or in a wheelchair. He told me that shortly after rolling to a stop he thought that he'd have to put a lot more effort into school since he couldn't feel his legs for a few minutes.

We left the next day with my son in a back brace, and came home to discover that some thieving porch pirate had stolen the UPS package containing a new RXR protector. A couple of return doctor visits to make sure no neurological damage had been done, and he was headed back to high school in the brace. He never took any pain pills, and in about three months shed the back brace. Once October rolled around he started right back in wrestling, and even earned a silver at that year's Judo Winter Nationals. Today all that remains is the infrequent aching in those three vertebra, although he tells me correct posture when sitting in a chair really helps reduce the discomfort.
Bloody hell I bet that feeling still haunts you to this day when you first saw the bike and worked out what had happened. But hey we all make mistakes! Glad your boy recovered well, that was a tough read.
AE448
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7/9/2020 7:15am Edited Date/Time 7/9/2020 7:16am
Only a short one from me but the odds of this happening must be rather high...

Me & my dad used to race every weekend, we did it for 10 years. Every now and then we'd take it in turns to break bones as you do. Then one race meeting my dad ends up clacking a post and his hand swells like a balloon...it's evident he's broken it. So what do I do...my next race I go out and hit a post too...thought ouch that hurt but finished the race. Had a lot of numbness but my hand was not swollen.

So we are both sitting in A&E later that evening waiting for the X-ray results (I'm not expecting mine to be broken) and the doc comes out, points to my dad and says "your hand is broken" then points to me and says "and your hand is very broken!" Couldn't believe it. My right hand, his left. Had to laugh about it, even at the time.
1
lumpy790
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York, SC US
7/9/2020 8:56am Edited Date/Time 7/9/2020 8:56am
1981 Aquasco MD in my 1st A class race was chasing Jeff Lanahan in practice cased a jump and crushed T4 and T5 vertebra. Week in the hospital and a year in a back brace.
dwkgonzales
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Albuquerque, NM US
7/9/2020 1:03pm
Was newer to racing and I overjumped and me not knowing at the time what to do simply just held on and hit so hard I snapped my neck brace breaking my jaw which I didn’t even know until we got to the hospital and putting a nice hole in my neck just barely missing anything important where the neck brace had stabbed me and had a nice ambulance trip to the hospital. Was there for four days had surgery on my neck and was good to go! Left a really nice scar under my jaw. Will always remember the EMT there when he got to me and the look on his face as he saw it lol. Luckily I had my GoPro on so I have video of it at least! Sold the 250 and bought a 125 so I can learn to ride and that was the best decision I’ve made.

The Shop

Holigan
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7/9/2020 1:25pm
Matthew Lalloz is riding for us back in 2004. He has a crash at our practice track northeast of DFW and looks and acts like he has a concussion. We take him to a hospital emergency room in Plano. Matt doesn't speak much English back then, and he is sitting there will all of his gear on after getting his bell rung. The nurse ask me what's wrong with him. I say, 'I am not sure what happened. He crashed his motorcycle and hit his head pretty hard. He is from Tyler Texas, but since the accident he only speaks French." It took the nurse and the doctor a while to figure that one out.


1
Old Shoe
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7/9/2020 5:18pm
Most memorable “trip” as in vehicle for me.

Not a good day, this was my third mode of medical transport after breaking tib and fib in to pieces.
First 1/4 mile from the track in a 4x4, had to sit up on the stretcher to hold the foot in place and stop it flopping left and right over the bumps with a sickening feel of bones clonking around inside like a bunch of broom handles.
Transferred to a local ambulance ready for the road trip, I got checked over by an air ambulance Doctor that happened to have been called for another incident requiring urgent plastic surgery. Same race, completely unrelated, bits missing!
After bleeding over the inside of their brand new ambulance ( first call) it was decided for risk of clots and compartment syndrome I should go to the same hospital planed for the plastic surgery. Can remember during the short stretcher trolley ride to the helicopter, the caster wheels went straight through a crust fresh cow pat pissing off the road crew who had to clean it all up for nothing.
Helicopter door open, in I go, only to see my mate looking a bit battered, hand wrapped in a red football sized bandage.
We both got looked after well, l got out of hospital with screws and an IM nail a few days later, bit quicker than my mate, but got a weird skin issue afterwards that caused 1/2” daily skin blistering for almost 9 months.

Same hospital, a few months later was at the centre of the UK novichok poisonings.












wwdiii
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League City, TX US
7/20/2020 1:50pm
Not sure it was the worst one, but one I remember the most for some reason.

Foot peg in the back, Big Red Motocross in Oklahoma City, 1973 or 74 can't remember, I was 17 or 18. We piled up big time going into turn two as I recall. It might have been turn one, its been a long time. I got ran over so many times I multipal tire tracks up the back of my CZ Jersey I was so prowd of. Those tire tracks would not wash out and my buddies would always give me crap at the track, it was the only Jersey I had back then. I can't remember what happened to it but it had race track of knobby tire tracks. I'm pretty sure somebody grabbed a gear in the middle of my back.

Still have the scar on back from that foot peg. Got hit in the head too. All I remember is I woke up in the bed of somebodys pickup Once I could walk a guy told me he rode my CZ to my truck for me. I had to wait for my my racing buddy to finish the last moto of his 125 class and he took me to the Emergency room. Lot of good that did they wanted insurance information and I was scared to call my mother for fear should make me quit racing. We went to a drug store and bought some bandages and my buddy pored a bottle of Alcohol on my back and we headed the 90 miles from Oklahoma City back to Ada, Ok. where we lived. We drank beer and burned one on the way back , it quit hurting after about 30 min. down the road.

Its a wonder how we lived through those days....................but sure was fun.



1
IanMac138
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West Linn, OR US
7/20/2020 2:29pm
Compound fracture of my femur the cut my quadricep in half doing a step-down cliff jump in Beaumont. Broke it into 4 large pieces and a million shards. Waited over an hour for an ambulance to get out to where I was. EMT's arrived but couldn't access where I ended up, so they had to use some random dudes truck and pile in the back. Put me on a stretcher, loaded me into the back of the truck and I could of sworn the dude driving the truck was trying to hit every bump as fast as he could, but I guess he was only going at a snails pace. Horrible pain. Missed my femoral artery by a millimeter. Would of been dead in a few minutes. Ended up with 12 days in hospital, a rod from hip to knee and 8 screws which I still have today. Good times. One funny thing I remember is when the female EMT told me to hold on to her arm when they were about to roll me onto the backboard, as they rolled me my hand slipped and I grabbed her breast so hard she screamed out in pain. Felt bad about that but it was an accident and I was just gripping anything I could from the pain.

Cliff jump (taken 12 years later by fellow Vital dude CarlinoJoeVideo) visiting the jump for first time since the crash:


The aftermath:

1
Falcon
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7/20/2020 3:26pm
Holigan wrote:
Matthew Lalloz is riding for us back in 2004. He has a crash at our practice track northeast of DFW and looks and acts like he...
Matthew Lalloz is riding for us back in 2004. He has a crash at our practice track northeast of DFW and looks and acts like he has a concussion. We take him to a hospital emergency room in Plano. Matt doesn't speak much English back then, and he is sitting there will all of his gear on after getting his bell rung. The nurse ask me what's wrong with him. I say, 'I am not sure what happened. He crashed his motorcycle and hit his head pretty hard. He is from Tyler Texas, but since the accident he only speaks French." It took the nurse and the doctor a while to figure that one out.


WoohooGrinningGrinningGrinningGrinningGrinning

You, sir, are an evil genius.
1
Alex.434
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Warner Springs, CA US
7/20/2020 4:45pm Edited Date/Time 7/20/2020 4:46pm
Milestone 2013.

Hit the step-up double for like the 1,000th time and this time the rear wheel kicked out way sideways cause the lip was a mess. I tried to monster truck it out. Landed/cased and the bike rebounded and swapped out the other way... this time the bike landed at the very bottom of the landing and highsided me into the face of the next jump.

Woke up in a Riverside hospital. Spent 3 days there with a punctured lung, broken collarbone and 3 cracked ribs. Really enjoyed the nurse who came in to ask me questions and when she asked me a religious question, and found out I'm not religious, then proceeded to start guilt tripping me and proselytizing. Unprofessional bitch.

My Tech 10's had been stolen from the side of the track also, as they were removed prior to loading me into the ambulance. Just to add insult to injury.

Good times.
Ryguy125
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Lake Milton, OH US
7/21/2020 12:35am Edited Date/Time 7/21/2020 12:37am
I was finally leading a harescramble racing Open B (just a local but guys want their trophies i guess) we were only about 25 minutes into it and some guy gets too antsy and saws my front wheel off. I've never been hit so hard on a bike lol. Anyway, i dust myself off and go finish the lap, as I'm coming up to the finish line i notice alot of blood on my throttle and right rad shroud so i pull off so my wife isn't too pissed at me. As im pulling my glove off i can see tendons in my hand. 20 stitches later I'm good to go with good news that i missed the tendon in my thumb by about 2mm
MZ193
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IT
7/21/2020 2:48am
MZ193 wrote:
https://youtu.be/XhvprwI6muA 4 years ago Luckily someone my worst crash ever! Nice trip in fhe ambulance, 1 night in the hospital and there i've met my ex...
https://youtu.be/XhvprwI6muA

4 years ago
Luckily someone my worst crash ever!
Nice trip in fhe ambulance, 1 night in the hospital and there i've met my ex girlfriend (was 15yo at the time)
Nothing broken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhvprwI6muA&feature=share
Why it won't show the video i attached to the post
zookrider62!
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7/21/2020 5:31am
Wrote this about 10 years ago from a moto trip to the ER

I completely brain farted and pinned it over the finish line jump. From what I remember I overshot it (cleared the landing by a good 10 feet or so), my hand blew off the bars, I did an epic tank-slapper then got thrown off directly onto my head.

My next memory is being in an ambulance driven down a bumpy road. I get to the hospital and the doctors are saying they will have to transfer me to another hospital because of the brain trauma. Im in my boxers and freezing, when a nurse asks why im wet someone mentions I urinated on myself while unconscious. I then throw up on a nurse a few times and they decide a catheter is necessary. To make it worse the nurse keeps setting her tray on my recently catheterized penis. After she does this a few times I not so politely tell her to stop resting her stuff on me. Up next is a helicopter ride, which sounds like it would be fun, but when youre strapped down to where you cant move at all and you feel sick, it isnt.

About 25 minutes after we land at Parkland hospital, 2 or 3 CT scans later they decide they dont need to do surgery and will let the blood drain naturally. Im now in my ICU room and they tell me I need a bath. 4 cute nurses start bathing me, it seems like it is straight out of a porn, except for the fact that I have a catheter in me and im not sure how my junk works with a tube in it, I proceed as a gentleman and wash my own balls.

A nurse takes the catheter out, I go to my bucket and start peeing. Then the strangest thing ever happened, I heard a fart like noise, but I was absolutely certain it wasnt a fart. I go to pee some more and I hear it again, I was queffing out of my penis, for sure, the weirdest thing to ever happen to me.
4
Spudnut
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7/21/2020 5:39am
Being airlifted to Seattle die to uncontrollable seizures, induced coma, great times
Falcon
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7/21/2020 8:17am
Zookrider62 for the win!
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honda341
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7/21/2020 9:07am
[i]Wrote this about 10 years ago from a moto trip to the ER[/i] I completely brain farted and pinned it over the finish line jump. From...
Wrote this about 10 years ago from a moto trip to the ER

I completely brain farted and pinned it over the finish line jump. From what I remember I overshot it (cleared the landing by a good 10 feet or so), my hand blew off the bars, I did an epic tank-slapper then got thrown off directly onto my head.

My next memory is being in an ambulance driven down a bumpy road. I get to the hospital and the doctors are saying they will have to transfer me to another hospital because of the brain trauma. Im in my boxers and freezing, when a nurse asks why im wet someone mentions I urinated on myself while unconscious. I then throw up on a nurse a few times and they decide a catheter is necessary. To make it worse the nurse keeps setting her tray on my recently catheterized penis. After she does this a few times I not so politely tell her to stop resting her stuff on me. Up next is a helicopter ride, which sounds like it would be fun, but when youre strapped down to where you cant move at all and you feel sick, it isnt.

About 25 minutes after we land at Parkland hospital, 2 or 3 CT scans later they decide they dont need to do surgery and will let the blood drain naturally. Im now in my ICU room and they tell me I need a bath. 4 cute nurses start bathing me, it seems like it is straight out of a porn, except for the fact that I have a catheter in me and im not sure how my junk works with a tube in it, I proceed as a gentleman and wash my own balls.

A nurse takes the catheter out, I go to my bucket and start peeing. Then the strangest thing ever happened, I heard a fart like noise, but I was absolutely certain it wasnt a fart. I go to pee some more and I hear it again, I was queffing out of my penis, for sure, the weirdest thing to ever happen to me.
What track were you at?
zookrider62!
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7/21/2020 9:11am
[i]Wrote this about 10 years ago from a moto trip to the ER[/i] I completely brain farted and pinned it over the finish line jump. From...
Wrote this about 10 years ago from a moto trip to the ER

I completely brain farted and pinned it over the finish line jump. From what I remember I overshot it (cleared the landing by a good 10 feet or so), my hand blew off the bars, I did an epic tank-slapper then got thrown off directly onto my head.

My next memory is being in an ambulance driven down a bumpy road. I get to the hospital and the doctors are saying they will have to transfer me to another hospital because of the brain trauma. Im in my boxers and freezing, when a nurse asks why im wet someone mentions I urinated on myself while unconscious. I then throw up on a nurse a few times and they decide a catheter is necessary. To make it worse the nurse keeps setting her tray on my recently catheterized penis. After she does this a few times I not so politely tell her to stop resting her stuff on me. Up next is a helicopter ride, which sounds like it would be fun, but when youre strapped down to where you cant move at all and you feel sick, it isnt.

About 25 minutes after we land at Parkland hospital, 2 or 3 CT scans later they decide they dont need to do surgery and will let the blood drain naturally. Im now in my ICU room and they tell me I need a bath. 4 cute nurses start bathing me, it seems like it is straight out of a porn, except for the fact that I have a catheter in me and im not sure how my junk works with a tube in it, I proceed as a gentleman and wash my own balls.

A nurse takes the catheter out, I go to my bucket and start peeing. Then the strangest thing ever happened, I heard a fart like noise, but I was absolutely certain it wasnt a fart. I go to pee some more and I hear it again, I was queffing out of my penis, for sure, the weirdest thing to ever happen to me.
honda341 wrote:
What track were you at?
good ol badlands
honda341
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7/21/2020 10:29am
Spent many a Wednesday nights and Saturday nights out there. Fun night track.
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Dropbear
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Adelaide AU
8/3/2020 12:30am
Fractured coccyx from looping a CR450 2 stroke. Interesting how they reset it, could have at least bought me a drink first.
8/3/2020 7:31am
Pre moto days about 13yrs old we just rode in the woods. Gear was a helmet jeans and work boots. I was kicking over my 1984 PE175 and my pantleg caught on the kickstarter and I fell over. Bike was stuck on top of me, buddies are laughing and pick up the bike off me. No big deal, we go riding. Hours later we come home. I don't know if I noticed it or my buddies but my pantleg was covered in blood. Wtf? Turns out when I got stuck on the kickstarter and fell over the kickstarter punched a hole in my leg through my jeans. Didn't even notice it and went riding all day with a hole in my leg hahaha! Trip to the ER for the first of many times to get stitches

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