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Great care after a nasty crash and my helmet prevented brain injury
Really nice club ride on Sunday, nice weather great friends. Unfortunately mid left bend at 20+ mph I had to brake as a 4x4 crossed the line slightly. As luck would have it my back wheel was going over a lovely cast iron manhole cover. I hit the floor with considerable force taking the rider behind me out. The car was oblivious to this. Big thank you to my club rider especially the doc who gave me so much help. When my head hit the floor I became very lightheaded and confused for a short time. On my way to hospital while experiencing a great deal of pelvic pain I took a look at my helmet, the outside was heavily scuffed but inside it had cracked right across the impact area. Though I have a big lump on my head it was still intact! thank you Lazer helmets.
I'm not saying people should wear helmets as I believe it should be a choice but I won't be riding with out a helmet.
As it turns out I have badly damaged my pelvis and I can't quite walk at the moment.on the upside I'm alive with no brain injury and I will be babk on bike in a few months.
My main point however is the quality of care I recieved from Southport AED and there observation ward. Brilliant, I read a lot of negative press about our doctors and nurses and I feel that the good things they do are over looked. I could not have wished for better care.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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26 comments
When I worked on building sites in the 70s I used to bang into scaffolding, low beams and over hazards because the helmet was 2.5 inches above the top of my head. When not wearing a helmet (away from site that is) I didn't bang it on low beams etc.
This proves that the weight of the helmet impaired the ability of my brain to defend itself and destroyed my spatial awareness. Or maybe the yellow peak affected my peripheral visual field causing the risk of neck injury. Maybe that's why I now have arthritis and degenerative disc disease in my neck .....
NB - tongue firmly in cheek; but these arguments are about as valid as all the "evidence" posted either way in these "debates".
< - keeps head down - >
Anyone know where I could get some advice about helmets?
I don't think anyone in this thread has said anything against helmet wearing. We've only only criticised some of the arguments for it.
It's about time someone put a lid on the helmet debate once and for all..............
Round and around and around we go.
The for/against helmet arguments get a bit boring after a while.
I've said what I think on the topic many times in the past but don't see the point now. The discussion never moves any further forward and just goes over the same ground every time, sometimes with trolling added in.
Fair comment about brain injury though I'm sertainly glad I didn't need my head stitching up on top of everything else.
'This would draw me to conclude that I would have sustained a more serious head injury with out the helmet.
Now I don't expect you to accept this argument as it would appear that you have an ani helmet agenda which is fine and the chances are that you will never need one, and if your wrong then it won't really matter.'
No, I don't have an anti-helmet agenda. I always wear one. I am however a scientist and can safely say that your conclusions are absolutely ridiculous.
I had an accident on a club ride in very similar circumstances. 20-30 mph, round a greasy bend, chap in front fell off, I fell off trying to avoid him. We basically had the same accident.
We were both wearing helmets, but his wasn't adjusted or didn't fit so it slid off his head, in effect it was like he wasn't wearing one.
He had a big gash around his eyebrow and went to hospital, I rode home. My helmet was smashed. He didn't have a brain injury
Without him as a control I might have been saying "the helmet saved my life - it would have been my skull", but in reality I know that the £80 helmet saved me from some pretty nasty cuts/grazes/bruising.
I still wear a helmet where appropriate, anywhere I am going to go fast, particularly riding on crappy roads in groups i.e. in my opinion where I "think" there is a realistic risk of coming off. I don't wear one when I potter to the shops, nipping round a mates house etc.
I have since done a lot more reading, in particular studies of the effectiveness of ski helmets. When I wear a helmet I believe it is going to save me from grazes/cuts etc. I think it probably wouldn't save me from serious brain injury (although I suspect this depends on exact circumstances) or in particular death. The are simply not designed to come with impact forces that high.
your helmet, by virtue of being scratched almost certainly saved you from some gravel rash, beyond that????
Surely I can say I believe the helmet prevented an injury without saying that all people should wear them? I believe that most cyclist are sensible people who will consider both sides of the discussion and then make a decision. Alcohol is a much more serious problem toward health than helmets! I regulary go bouldering with out a helmet. I way up the information available and then make my decision. Yes I belive that helmets can at times help limit injury so can sitting in a giant buble for all you life. I think risk is something we enjoy at times. I do accept your point that the headline was too one sided but my aim was simply to offer my opinion on what happened from the helmet to the great medical care.
If people don't want to wear helmets that's fine, I have often ridden bare headed, though Sunday has changed my mind. I'm sure people have the capacity to make there own informed decisions,
I think enforcing helmets would damage cycling as a 10 year old riding at a few mph is far different than a mtb going full pelt down a mountain. where would we draw the line?
I do however stick by my opinion that I was substantially helped by my now defunct helmet. And the NHS were of the highest standard though I am biased as a health care professional, though that often makes me more demanding and critical.
Well, in this example, the kid riding along is much more likely to benefit from a normal polystyrene hat (not full face DH version...) as he/she falling off is within design parameters.
A MTBer flying off at 20mph plus is far outside it and the gain from wearing a helmet would mainly be in reducing cuts and grazes, which is very good in and of itself. Unlikely to do anything meaningful re impact injury though, should head meet rock.
'As for the question of how I know it helped, try slamming the side of you head against Tarmac at 23 mph then see if you have a bump on you hear or if you have major head trauma I suspect major head trauma may result. '
You didn't answer the question though.
Ok I will try and answer the question, my helmet is made from a material which is more able to disapate energy or shock if you like than a road surface or human head.
The exteria of my helmet was gouged and dented following the impact. The inside was dented and a crack had formedover this area?
My head still recieved some grazing and a lump from the impact.
My head does not have the more robust plastic cover of my helmet, it has soft skin under which is a subcutaneous area of flesh and capillaries carrying blood. Though robust in many ways that are not as resistant to cuts and gouging as the plastic outer of my helmet.
Therefore one might draw the conclusion that my heads protective layers of skin would have recieved as a minimum the same amount of damage as the helmet.
So lets now look at the internal damage to the helmet,the polystyrene had compressed considerably and there was a crack in the helmet. I accept that the scull is harder than polystyrene but don't let that mislead you as the scull is harder it would be likely to sustain a more focused and therefore damaging impact than the helmet wich disperses the impact over a greater area.
This would draw me to conclude that I would have sustained a more serious head injury with out the helmet.
Now I don't expect you to accept this argument as it would appear that you have an ani helmet agenda which is fine and the chances are that you will never need one, and if your wrong then it won't really matter.
As I have said before I am not trying to enororce helmets for all I'm simply expressing my opinion of what happened to me. This is how i came to my opinion it's difinatly not quantatative, it's just my opinion and if every one else thinks it's shit then that is ok just dont wear a helmet, get out and enjoy you bike,
OK sarcasm aside, it was good to read your post and to hear that the hospital did a good job. I am sorry to hear you were hurt but no long term damage.
The thing is, I guess some people get a little tired of reading these kind of posts where the main purpose seems to be to preach wearing the helmet.
I know you say you believe it is a choice but your attention grabbing headline reads otherwise, you do not know that wearing a helmet prevented brain injury, even a surgeon could not be certain of this.
As it happens, I wear a helmet, pretty much all of the time but I reserve the right not to and never ever tell others what they should do there is enough of that coming from the non cycling public.
I'm not going to slam my head at 23mph into tarmac, but then neither did beefy. Presumably they were cycling along the road at 23mph, not cycling into a tarmac wall at that speed. I think doing that would cause major head trauma with or without a helmet.
Not trolling, just disagreeing.
People on both sides of this argument are understandably passionate but it shouldn't descend into name-calling.
I am 100% pro choice, am not anti-helmet and have never, ever criticised anyone for choosing to wear/not wear a helmet. I just wish the "helmet saved my life" people wouldn't spend so much time trying to convince everyone that they are right (and non-wearers are therefore wrong). It is not that simple.
Learning how to ride in traffic, anticipating hazards and so on will do far more for your life expectancy than a polystyrene hat. As Chris Boardman said recently, a helmet “isn’t even in the top 10 things that will really keep people who want to cycle safe.” - http://road.cc/134586
I am pro choice and don't belive people should be forced to wear helmets, I'm simply pointing out that in this particular case it helped, surely choice is about balancing two arguments and making a decision. As for the question of how I know it helped, try slamming the side of you head against Tarmac at 23 mph then see if you have a bump on you hear or if you have major head trauma I suspect major head trauma may result.
I didn't wear body armour because as painful as it is muscoskelital injuries generally don't cause brain damage which I'm sure you know controls most aspects of our nervous system.
I do belive that people can say," I don't care I don't want to wear a lid". That's fine in my book as forcing helmets is a slipper slope. I'm just telling you what happened in this incident.
As for imagination, I was treated by a Scottish and English nurse, a South African and Spanish medic paid for by the tax we all pay in the UK and given the massive back door cuts the NHSis under and the lack of a pay rise for staff in 4 years, the treatment was great. But I think That imagination would be more suitable for a different forum perhaps not a cycling one.
As for the sarcasm, that is unfortunately growing on road cc, I thought this site was for fellow cyclist to discuss things not trolls sitting behind a computer with one hand down there trousers.
At work on a construction site I once took my helmet off just for a few minutes because it was hot weather. I placed it on the tracks of a 21 tonne excavator. When I turned my back the excavator moved off and drove over my helmet flattening it completely.
I have kept the flat helmet as a reminder of how lucky I was that I wasn't wearing the helmet at the time.
Not wearing it ultimately saved my life.
Helmets aren't designed to protect your head by cracking, they protect your head by squashing. If the EPS foam was squashed in the accident then it did something to protect your head, if not it probably didn't do much to reduce the impact.
It's very hard to tell in any particular case what sort of injury someone would have had had they not been wearing a helmet. I'm sure it would have been worse, but perhaps not very much worse.
People sometimes look at a cracked helmet and say things like 'it would be my skull cracked instead if I didn't have the helmet' but of course bone is much tougher than EPS.
Mebbe worth adding that part of the point of any protective headgear should be not only to prevent a skull fracture, but to allow a more controlled deceleration of the brain against the inside of the skull.
Sorry to hear you got hurt, hope you get back on the bike soon.
Have you ever considered wearing some protection around your pelvis? It would certainly have saved you from a nasty injury
Seriously, if you are pro-choice and don't want to proselytise why even mention the h-word? And why put it in the title of the post?
Great to know that the NHS treated you well. Most people who use it recognise the uncaring, unprofessional, "broken" health service that the muckraking 'media' would have us believe. My mum has unfortunately just been in hospital 3 times in just over a week. She was treated brilliantly and is extremely grateful.
I rarely read/watch mainstream media now but when I do their agenda is clear: we must be kept fearful. Cameron's recent speech on immigration is an example - the only other voice allowed was UKIP. No chance for a counter-argument. The message: "immigrants are definitely bad, we're only arguing about exactly what to do about them". If I was an immigrant living here I may be genuinely fearful for my safety. And we think of ourselves as a civilised nation... I despair!
I think Beafy's inclusion of helmets in his post was far more on topic than your mention of immigration. What the Fuck has that got to do with cycling, helmets or pelvic thrusts (or inability to do them at the moment as the case might be). Pot meet kettle and all that.
Trying to make the point about issues like NHS and the way the media twist stuff and set the agenda. Yes it was long-winded and strayed OT (a fault of mine, I admit but I'm not alone). Sadly it seems that, despite my efforts, you missed the point. Oh well, at least I tried. How about you have a try?
Calm down. I can understand your frustration. When dealing with someone like that the best way is to ignore them completely.
Anyway to ignore certain members post completely?
The helmet debate goes around in circles but as I always say, riding without a helmet is not a problem, it is hitting the ground with your head where the problems start.
Good you are mostly okay!
Last night a DJ saved my life.