Figured I would post this as it helps me vent a little, just a brief background on myself. I have been a paramedic for 24 years working full time since I was 20 years old, I started working for a private ambulance service directly out of school and 6 years ago I was hired as a professional firefighter / paramedic on my local fire dept.,long family history in the fire service.
And the story...
On October 9 th myself and two other guys from my group ( both paramedics as well) had planned on going for a ride that day after getting off shift that morning at 7. I on my m1100 and my friend on his newly purchased victory 8 ball ( new rider and his first moto ever) set off to the next town to grab coffee and wait for our third friend to show up, now our friend that we are waiting for has a borrowed R6 from another firefighter/ paramedic in our group, hes been out on it a few times and seems to have a "intermediate skill level.
He finally shows up and we set off on our ride, now if you can paint a picture of three "alpha males" out riding , two of them have ridden together before (myself and we will call my buddy "victory" for ease of explanation) I have been riding most of my life on a multitude of different bikes and "victory"is a brand new, very cautious rider. Now My buddy R6 has never been out with the other two "alpha males", is on a borrowed bike, and in a nut she'll has a " I can keep up with you guys and more" attitude, not just that day but life in general. Mind you the three of us are very close outside of work and hang out often so I'm intitled to talk a litte shit
I knew how the day was going to go when R6 got on the throttle in a thickly settled area and pulled away from us, I made the decision to hang back with victory instead of playing chase with R6 (I didn't want to provoke him on a borrowed bike) We slowed down and R6 did as well and joined us, we came through a left right turn that led into a half mile straightaway and just as I predicted R6 was on the gas and pulled away from us on the straight which led into a moderate right turn.
Now I can hear the sound of R6's bike as he's going down the straight and I'm thinking to myself as he starts to approach the right hand turn... "Brake now before the turn please not wile your in it!" As soon as he starts to make the turn I hear the rpm's die and see the rear light go bright.... The bike stands up and crosses the yellow line, as this is happening there's a small dump truck pulling an enclosed dual axel landscape trailer behind it coming in the opposite direction, R6 hits the trailer in front of the axel at a 45 deg angle and flys approx 40 feet before landing in the middle of the roadway, the bike flips over four times then skids of to the right coming to rest against the curb.
Now being an experienced paramedic I knew right away that I was going to fly him via medivac helicopter before I even stopped my bike to get off just based on the speed and impact alone. I got off and approached him looking around for body parts that I'm sure were lost just based on seeing the impact however he was intact but had a devasting injury to his left thigh, lacerated around the entire circumference of the thigh with a visible fracture of his femur in multiple places with moderate to heavy bleeding. Victory was just getting off his bike and walking up to us and I made a justure of a "spinning blade" then a phone with my hand and he knew exactly what I ment.
We applied a turnicate to his upper thigh and stabilized his leg the best that we could with no equipment and victory made multiple calls to update the police and fire with who we were and what we wanted and what to expect when they arrived. We waited for what seemed like an eternity, I can't begin to tell you how many times in my carrier I have pulled up on scene to people saying "oh my god it seems like it took you forever to get here!" That day I was in their shoes. The first arriving police had some basic equipment and we began to dress the wounds as the first fire dept rescue showed up. The medics on the rescue basically stepped back and let us run the entire event which was awesome because I was like an angry dog protecting his food when it came to treating him. We Packaged him and transported him to the landing zone at that point, I started multiple IV's and tried to replace some of his volume with fluid and gave narcotics for pain control.
We arrived at the landing zone and loaded him into the helo and off they went, I went back with the rescue to meet back up with victory at the police station and retrieve my bike. I was happy with the treatment of R6 and how quickly we did what we have been trained to do and have done so many times in the past, but never in my 24 years of being a medic to a friend. That night after going home I had an adrenaline dump and basically broke down, I've become very skilled over the years of putting all my work horrors in a little box and pushing them into the back of my mind so they kind sort of rot and go away and they do but not this time, it was a rough few days for me after. R6 was on a ventilator in the intensive care unit for a week and then finally moved to a regular floor last sunday. He makes his way to a rehab hospital on Thursday to start that portion of his life and learn to walk again. There was talk of him loosing his leg but that ship has passed and he's out of the woods and has good feeling and movement and blood flow to the lower leg now.
I spoke to the surgeon that treated him in the OR and he told me that R6 was pulsless for approx two to three minutes due to blood loss, and that him being alive was absolutly contributed to the treatment we gave him on scene and the decisions we made for transport with the helicopter. he suffered a femur fracture with damage to the femoral artery as well as a fracture of the pelvis in multiple areas, he recieved 6 units of blood during the initial surgery and two more after.
There was an ABC film crew filming a documentary called "the golden hour" which highlights trauma patients and the first hour after the initial injury which dictates the persons outcome
Reflected on the treatment the recieve in that hour. R6 is going to have the first episode that airs in February and my self and victory were interviewed in the hospital by them about what happened. I'll post a link here when it gets aired on ABC this February.
I also had my gopro on for the entire event, soup to nuts. I'm not going to post anything untill
R6 ok's the edited version. Wile I was writeing this he just texted me "Hey......... F$@k you!!! and a smily face after.... That's all I could have hoped for at the end of all this
