Originally Posted by
bruce19
On July 24, 2013, I was out on a group ride on a 2-lane State road with friends. I was signaling a right hand turn with my right hand and (I think) I must have hit a bump in the road. My left hand jammed my front brake lever and I went over the top and hit head first into the pavement. I was a mess. I put some teeth through my lip, chipped said teeth, slashed my nose and basically trashed C1. Two 5 hour operations and 8 days in hospital later I had C1 & C2 fused. Cosmetic surgery to straighten my nose, sutures to close up my lip and an Assos jersey cut off my body to get me into a back brace for transport. It was not good. Got home on August 1st. By mid-November I was back on the rail/trail. Been good ever since.
Got you beat there.... In October 1994 I was driving home at about 11pm from a late night office meeting. We were under huge pressure to get some software out (probably pays many of you). On a 25mph road while making a wide bend that goes uphill steeply, a car came the other way doing about 60mph (according to vehicle tests on the road) launched off the crest and landed directly into the grill of my little Buick Skyhawk.
Results were complete face degloving (complete removal leaving bare skull), broken ribs, broken feet, broken femur. Seat belt was a life saver.
End result was 7 hours of surgery to re-attach my face and gums, then 4 follow up surgeries to put my nose back in the right place, fix the crack in my skull from my right eye socket down to my upper teeth, and some more dental work. Never lost a single tooth! Although I did have the classic Frankenstein scars, and needed 8 more visits to cosmetic surgeon to re-cut and/or burn the scars to make them go away. Today, the scars are just a very thin hair line, or a slight indentation (from laser burning) in skin. All in all, most people don't see anything. Has been over 20 years. But I did lose permanent feeling to the right half of my lower lip all the way down the chin. I just tell the wife to kiss harder. LOL!!! And most of my my foot at the surface, but it pains me inside.