Epic scooter crash

[NlC0]

As promised, the tale and pics of my epic (ok, not really at all) scooter crash.

At the end of March, I was visiting some friends in New York City. One of them had found an old beat up 50cc scooter awaiting the dumpster, and repaired it to mostly working order, minus a terrible carb tune and a throttle return spring. We were goofing around on it (no booze involved) in just about the only place you can in downtown NYC, which was an empty parking garage.

Regardless of my explanation below, the wreck really came down to one thing; a complete lack of respect for the vehicle (I'd just gotten my first bike about 2 weeks before, and although I always had full gear on that and was taking it easy, the impression was that scooters can't hurt you), and then what happened was made a million times worse by the worst location for mistakes ever, a dusty gloss floor concrete space enclosed by walls and pillars.

Sliding the back end of a scooter around was fun for a bit. Then i went down a really steep ramp to the next level of the garage (if you've pulled into a NYC parking garage before you know how steep these can be), picked up a way more speed than i should have, kinda forgot about the throttle not snapping shut, probably still had it twisted as I grabbed at the brakes to slow down, but not nearly enough for the wall ahead (dusty gloss floor, right?), then just (10 ft?) before the wall fully grabbed the brakes in panic mode, locked up both wheels and hit the wall at probably 20 mph. There was a heating pipe on the wall covered in nice sharp radiator fins at about chest height, so I think I held my arms completely rigid to avoid slamming into that. It worked, in that neither my helmet or my knees hit the wall at all, I got up, no prob, took off the helmet, patted around, arm felt funny, then I looked at it, oh shit, that's weird. I made the 10 minute walk to the hospital just fine, it wasn't that bad. Waited 15 minutes in the ER (they asked me to fill out a form, I showed them my arm, and they still asked me to. my friend did it) before they finally got me to a stretcher, and then it hit me.

Anyways, it probably sounds like I'm making a bigger deal than it was, so I'll just go for the pics.

1567

1568

1569


I really don't have a good side image before it started swelling up... x-rays are better here
1570

1571

more in sec, can only attach 5 at a time

[NlC0]

All those bones are not supposed to be in the same place.
1572

The doc described it as "crushed or pulverized"
1573

I kept pretty good spirits before the cast though.
1574

I took about 30 minutes to carefully pull it straight. Literally, just a guy hanging my arm up by my fingers and pulling it down. They would stop and take an x-ray (digital machine, with instant shots) to make sure they weren't screwing up my joint.

After the cast I was even better, but it might have just been the two shots of morphine. I was actually at a party like an hour and a half out of the hospital while my friends laughed it up.

1575

So, details. They told me I would likely need surgery and to get a CT scan the next day. Results? I had an inter-articular (in my joint) comminuted (crushed) distal (end of the bone) radius (one of the forearm bones) fracture, a crack running in my ulna (other forearm bone), and worst of all, cracked my scaphoid (bone at the base of the thumb) in half. the scaphoid is the slowest healing bone in the body pretty much, because its the last one in the wrist to get blood and is encased in cartilage, with a 10% non-union rate in fractures of my type. If it didn't heal it pretty much means wrist fusion. Surgery for sure.

[Sustanon]

Colles fracture? Some kid at my work did that the other week too.

After surgery if you need help with recovery at all, send me a PM and I'll give you things you can do.

Good luck.

[NlC0]

Surgery itself took three hours. I needed two bone grafts (dead people's bones) where the bone was so crushed up they took out the pieces and put in the grafts. Also, 21 screws and 2 titanium plates.

1576

1577

1578

Because of all the screws holding it in place, and because I had to get it moving as soon as possible or risk it all fusing together, I had the final cast off just 2 weeks later. This is before they cleaned it all up.

1579

1580

To make this story a little less long...

Took me 2 weeks of therapy to be able to touch my thumb to my index finger.

Took another week to be able to touch my pinkie. Can finally go back to right hand for everyday stuff.

Another 2 weeks to be able to touch my palm and write decently.

1 month after the surgery, the bruise on my OTHER hand went away but the pain did not. Turns out I broke a fragment off a bone in there too, right next to a nerve, making things go tingly. Had to splint that for about 2 weeks to let scar tissue form around the fragment.

4 months from the surgery to get a grip strength of about 35 lbs (normal should be like 120 or so). Doc finally oks me getting back on the motorcycle, ride around for a few weeks, meet Kurtz, get on BoRN.

5 months to be almost back to normal movement and grip strength of 100 lbs. Finally able to fully put my weight on it, barely, and do some pushups.

Won't ever be 100%, but it's mostly there.

[NlC0]

Colles fracture? Some kid at my work did that the other week too.

After surgery if you need help with recovery at all, send me a PM and I'll give you things you can do.

Good luck.

No, a lot worse than Colles. It was completely shattered. And the scaphoid is actually a lot worse than the rest of it, really the limiting factor despite only getting a nice clean crack in half.

[mungea]

Good stuff Nick. Welcome to the "permenantly broken" club :thumbup:

[prorobo]

Sorry to hear about your crash and permanent damage man! My big toe on my left foot is partially fused and doesn't bend down from when I shattered my foot in a moto crash, but I'm still able to run and do everything else normally.

[NlC0]

Oh ya, I also have a full set of 3D see through rotatable images of BOTH of my arms. Just a sample. The intersecting screws is nuts.

1581

1582

1583

1584

And yes, that is a bone fragment floating around above my ulna. You can see where it cracked too, but it didnt need anything done to it.

[NlC0]

Anyways, moral of the story: it really doesnt take much of anything really (speed, power, stupidity) to seriously fuck yourself up.

[ilikenapalm]

Nice hardware.

[xbootlickx]

omg ouch! you got a permanent :gayaway: lol j/k i hope they straightened that out you dont want to give people the wrong impression ... so u get the good drugs?

[NlC0]

so u get the good drugs?

NO.

New York can only supply you with "good" stuff for 5 days post surgery or something without followup. I don't live in NYC, so I spent 4 days after surgery sleeping on a friends sofa, mostly out of it before I could get home, during which time my car got towed and impounded (-$500) because my friends can't read parking signs. Once I got out of NYC and my prescription was out I found out I needed to either schedule and PAY for another evaluation by another nearby doc to get more or go all the way back to NYC to get it filled. F that. I did manage to only miss 4 days of work.

And what I had wasn't that good; had 5/500 (5mg oxycodone, 500 acetemetaphine) percoset prescription for those 5 days, that was it. Post surgery was about 1000 times worse than actually breaking it. I certainly wasnt at any parties after the surgery.

[JHawley]

wow this is one hell of a story!
well i gotta admit your in really good spirits despite the whole ordeal

[Evil_Weasel]

impressive. especially for a scooter.

old wobbley 50cc shit boxes are the sscariest things i've ever ridden in my life...i'd much rather take my chances with a poorly jetted NSR500

[DB0007]

When the hell???

[NlC0]

impressive. especially for a scooter.

impressive avatar shot you have going on there yourself. how's that one doing?

When the hell???

All the way back in March, like 3 weeks after I moved here. Yeah, I may have told you the shorter no explanation version that it was just one a bike, and that it wasn't a very good story. Haha.

[Gixxerdude]

Wow dude, impressive write up and those 3D x-rays are pretty cool, i gonna save them to my hard drive use them as proof to what having fun/stupidity on anything motorized can lead to..

Keeping high spirits the whole time had to help in your healing semi-kinda-a little quick lol...

[Evil_Weasel]

impressive avatar shot you have going on there yourself. how's that one doing?


meh it's pretty much as healed as it's gonna get. i no longer limp noticabley but i'll never run again...suits me just fine i never much cared for running anyway.

[Zsolt67]

Bone grafts rock! I have one in my wrist with bone from my iliac crest:twofinger:

[NlC0]

Bone grafts rock! I have one in my wrist with bone from my iliac crest:twofinger:

why not go with bone not from yourself? I really didn't want to deal with 2 surgerys at once, I had that option as well.

gixxerdude, if you like those, I've got a CT scan set from the left too, in non-see through mode, showing the bone I broke there too. I'll put em up. Also, the CRAZY thing is, it happened SO easily. I feel like I could have had the same damage running into the wall. Not that I need a more dumbass story.

But yes, I consider myself very lucky not to have any major permanent limitations, sorry about the running Evil, but yeah, why run when you can ride the bike?

[Zachass]

My friend just got surgery on his shoulder...gave him 50 pills of strong Perks...his dad got hold of the bottle and left him with only 12....... REALLY??!?!? who else thinks thats fucked up.

[JHawley]

My friend just got surgery on his shoulder...gave him 50 pills of strong Perks...his dad got hold of the bottle and left him with only 12....... REALLY??!?!? who else thinks thats fucked up.

SMH: for fucks sake