Wrote off my SV650, almost wrote off my leg

[Participant]

After a relatively short campaign, my biking days appear to be numbered, at least for the foreseeable future.

Overtaking a queue of stationary traffic at c.40mph on an A-road, a car driver got bored of waiting in traffic and u-turned in the road without checking his mirrors.

I steered enough to avoid going through his window, but my left leg hit the car's bumper.

I sustained an open fracture to the tibia and fibula, with a degloving injury to the outer left shin and the bone pushed out of the other side of my leg.

This happened in mid November and the result so far is 2 weeks in hospital, 3 operations, an intramedullary tibial nail through the marrow cavity of the tibia, two free flap muscle grafts, a hideous-looking leg that I almost lost, foot drop (how will I change gear?!), lots of time off work, and huge care-related pressures on my family.

On the bright side: I didn't die, I wasn't paralysed, my leg should substantively recover (at least physiologically, if not aesthetically), and the car's bumper somehow missed my knee and ankle.

Be careful people.

WARNING: the following pics may be gross. Do not click the spoiler button if you are squeamish...you have been warned .

Poor bike in storage:

Hardly any damage right? Most of the damage was to my leg. The bike has since been written off by my insurers...not exactly sure why as I've not seen the report, but they paid a fair settlement figure and I'm not riding it anymore, so it's fine.

Remains of my suit trousers that they cut open in the ambulance:

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After the second operation. They've mostly covered the wound with muscle from my right thigh, which helps with blood supply and infection prevention. They left two holes for irrigation, which were closed a week later once the initial swelling had reduced.

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Muscle graft donor site (anterolateral thigh free flap):

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This is now a long scar. Luckily they managed to close it without needing a further skin graft.

In hospital waiting for the third operation to close the wounds.

At least they leave lube at the end of the bed.

My leg as at right now:

The scar under my knee is where the nail was inserted through the medullary cavity of the tibia.

Prognosis is good, subject mainly to a) successful bony union b) avoiding bone infection and c) lots of physio effort.

The accident happened 2.5 months ago now, and I'm almost crutch-free.

Note: I won't discuss any aspects of blame, legalities, driver fault, third party insurance claims, etc.

 

[Participant]

Ouch! Glad to hear that on the whole it sounds like you shouldn't have any lasting damage apart from some cool scars though and we all know chicks dig scars.

Exactly what I needed to hear .

I went back to work 6 weeks after this happened. Nobody could believe I was back so soon, but IM nails are incredible things (my leg was immediately weight-bearing) and there's only so much Netflix, Prime, and Fallout 4 the human mind can take.

 

[Participant]

It's alright it was only an SV650

Ha! A beautiful example of an SV though.

I hope your suit trousers were inside some proper biking gear?
Andi.

Alpinestars Andes Drystar. They really struggled to cut through it, especially when they hit the armour. The leg would still have been all kinds of broken no matter what I was wearing though.

Tib was broken in 6 places.

 

[Participant]

Ouch!!! Glad you are on the mend, though 40mph past stationary traffic... asking for and finding trouble I am sad to say, way too fast

You're probably right as a general principle, however just to be clear, I wasn't filtering at 40mph in between two opposing lanes of stationary traffic.

It's a wide NSL single carriageway on which there was one lane of queuing and one lane that was totally clear and empty. I was in this empty lane. However at the end of the day, my speed and the suddenness of the car's manoeuvre meant that I couldn't brake or avoid him, which I could have if I'd have been going slower.

But then I guess that applies to every accident.

 

[Participant]

Unlikely, this sort of accident will normally go 50-50

That's called split liability and does not preclude suing the third party. You just get half the damages.

Whether or not it was sensible from a self preservation point of view, in the eyes of the law and the highway code I was a correctly proceeding vehicle and the driver failed to observe before performing their maneouve.

Traffic conditions were typical for the road in rush hour as it queues in the same place every day, though this isn't really relevant since the person might have never driven on the road before.

None of this helps my leg of course, so would I think twice about doing it next time? Yes, I would!

Next bike: really want an S1000RR, but physically speaking I can't change gear yet and mentally speaking I think it would cause my wife to have a breakdown and trigger a rapid parting of ways!

 

[Participant]

Keep us updated participant, you know where to find me if you need a chat. Maybe I shouldn't have given you that biking theory test dvd years ago

Thanks . Yes I entirely blame you for the whole thing

Here's the whole drama in one shot as it stands (not particularly gory, but spoilered anyway as it may arouse feelings in people that they'd rather leave unstirred ):

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The scar on my right thigh is where they took muscle to repair the holes in my left leg. It took ages to stop oozing and I had nurse visits every day to check the health of the wounds.

It should improve a lot from here, but it'll never be pretty!

I lost almost 8% of my bodyweight in hospital. Couldn't stomach any of the hospital food.

 

[Participant]

Thanks, nice bike! :'( I loved my SV especially after all the little improvements I'd made to it. I miss it loads (and biking in general for that matter!).

Recovery is going pretty well. I'm mostly moving around without crutches now. Leg muscles are pathetic but getting stronger.

The critical parts of the recovery are out of my control though, ie bony union and infection avoidance.

 

[Participant]

Well it's almost 5 months since my RTA and time for an update.

I've just got back from an appointment with the consultant (the one that physically nailed my leg and who, by the way - if this isn't too sexist - was outrageously attractive) at the orthoplastics clinic at University Hospital Coventry.

Bony union is progressing well, which I was pretty worried about. I've ditched the crutches and am more mobile and in less pain each day. Feeling good about prognosis, but they did tell me that sometimes people with open fractures in the 80s present with osteomyelitis (bone infection). Great! So I'll never be fully in the clear in that regard.

There'll always be reduced sensation in parts of my legs, but it won't affect functionality, which looks like it should substantively recover, barring some flexibility in my toes. And hey, I still have two legs, and quite a few people in the waiting room unfortunately did not.

While I was there, I got some more images of the injury and x-rays for those that are interested.

Tibia / fibula X-ray when I arrived in A&E after the accident:

Tibia / fibula X-ray after fixation (x-ray taken today; evidence of good progress towards callus formation and bony union):

My leg when I'd just arrived in A&E...be warned, this is probably the nastiest image. Mods - I'm posting this on the basis that it's in the interest of biker safety, but if you feel it's a step too far then I completely understand. Only click if you are not going to be upset by a bloody leg at a funny angle .

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I've been back at work since 3rd Jan and walking without crutches for 2 months now.

I can walk fairly well but cannot yet jog, though it's something the physios say I should start to try.

The emotional impact on my family has been far greater than I could have imagined, especially my wife. It's also not nice for your own kids to be visibly distressed by the sight of daddy's leg.

Police and insurance investigations have been concluded, but it's not wise to comment at this stage .

The physio continues and I'm lucky that there's a physiotherapist and gym at work, so I'm getting some good treatment all round.

Not that they'll read this, but the staff at the University Hospital Coventry / Walsgrave are a very clever bunch and have my eternal gratitude for saving my leg.

 

[Participant]

I damaged my knee in a crash too

Haha

 

[Participant]

^ Lol, no problem NooBish AbbZ...

Correction to the above by the way - the image of my leg hanging off was in fact in the ambulance. You can see the shelves very close to my leg on the right, which aren't a feature of an A&E bed...

The other reason I realised that this image is from the ambulance and not A&E, is that my leg is still at an angle. Shortly after that photo was taken, they straightened it (in the ambulance) to improve circulation and save my leg, as they noticed my foot was going white. That part was terrible and possibly more painful than the initial impact.

As for every day life, my leg hurts to some degree or another whenever I walk, in particular in the mornings or when I first stand up after sitting or lying, and I keep getting a little bleeding bit on my free flap donor leg. First thing in the morning is particularly bad and very stiff.

Mowing the lawns seems to particularly affect me, I guess because I'm pushing rather than just walking.

I get some tingling and hypersensitivity in my left foot, which still 'slaps' a bit when I walk.

I watched some tibial nailing videos on YouTube last night and I just find it absolutely amazing. The whole thing made me want to re-train as a doctor / surgeon.

The legal part will take another 18 months or so, as they have to wait approx 2 years to understand long term prognosis.

Coming home from work this evening there was a huge traffic jam (bridge jumper on M40 causing closure if anyone else experienced it), and with dozens of bikers going past, all I could think about was how much I want to get back on a bike.