He had gone motorbike riding with his friend Tim to go golfing at the golf course, and they were on their way back to our home after they were done golfing when it happened. There is a gravel trail adjacent to the highway for walkers, bicyclers, and ATV users, which is what Ammon drives on when he rides his motorbike to town from our house 7 miles away. The trail goes up and down over driveway crossings, but the trail has been used so much that the driveways are like gradual little hills which create fun little jumps. The highway had some road work done this spring, and they added the new asphalt on top of the old asphalt, creating a taller road. A new access driveway was built to a recently installed power box near the Shoup Bridge, and the new driveway was built to be as tall as the newly finished highway. The driveway access was unlike the other older driveways: it was tall and square rather than being shorter with gradually-inclining sides. He hit that new driveway going 50 mph, and the bike catapulted high. When he landed, the back wheel came down first hitting the opposite side of the driveway, but the front end took a nose dive to land on the gravel trail below. The effect threw him off the bike, sent him flying through the air, and then landing and sliding in the gravel on the ground along his left side. Tim had been far enough behind him that the accident didn't affect him, and since the access driveway was so high, Tim couldn't even see from where he was what had happened to Ammon after he landed the jump.
Josh and I had planned to to out with friends that evening, and I felt uneasy leaving home without Ammon returning on his motorbike. We left a little later than planned because one of our friends was delayed, but he still wasn't home yet. We drove around, picked up 3 friends, and were just getting ready to drive down main street to head to Josephine's Pizza, a restaurant 30 miles north in an area of no-cell service, when Ammon called saying he'd had an accident and his arm really hurt.
Josh told him we'd be there in a few minutes, and he high-tailed it back down the highway to reach Ammon. Ammon also called Grandpa after getting off the phone with us, to see if he could come help him, since he was closer to the accident site than we were. By the time we arrived, Ammon was just getting into Grandpa's car. We looked at Ammon's arm, and said we were taking him to the E.R. There was a very deep gash, and I could see a muscle or tendon in the hole, and I knew that I couldn't clean it out the wound as well as a doctor could, and it would be much more painful for him if I tried. Tim and Grandpa got the motorbikes home (except for some scratches on the bike, Ammon's still worked fine), and Josh and I (and our friends) drove Ammon to the E.R.
His left side was all banged up: road rash on his shoulder, deep wound by his elbow, scraped knee, and scratched ankle. But miraculously, he hadn't broken a bone. Thankfully, he was wearing a helmet, which also got scraped up on the left side, but that saved his face and scalp from receiving the damage. The worst was the deep wound by his elbow, which is what the doctor focused on cleaning up and mending.
Ammon got a couple of shots in his arm to numb it before they began the task of cleaning it up. When it was all clean, the doctor measured how horizontally deep the gash wash: it was 4cm!!!
It was gross! I told Ammon it looked like Jupiter's red eye!
After the doctor joked with Ammon for the bad choice of only wearing shorts and a T-shirt while riding the dirt bike, he commended him for wearing a helmet and said it was the best kind of motorcycle accident: it was painful enough for him to remember it, but since he didn't sustain any permanent damage, there wouldn't be lasting effects. The doctor installed a drainage tube in the hole and sewed 6 stitches to seal the opening.
We were in the E.R. only about an hour and a half, and were so glad that we were the only ones for the most part! Ammon came home with his arm all bandaged up, and he laid around the house taking it easy for 3 days before going back to work and resuming his regular schedule. His knee was sore for a while, because it scabbed over, making it hard for him to walk or run without a limp. But his arm has taken the longest to heal, and he's been good about not complaining much about it. After a week, 3 of the stitches came out, after 10 days, the drain tube came out, and after 2 weeks, the rest of the stitches were removed.
 |
| 3 days post-accident |
 |
| 1 week post-accident |
 |
| 10 days after |
 |
| 2 weeks after |
 |
| 3 weeks later |
No comments:
Post a Comment