Has been a good week for commuting, no snow, but really really really cold, but then it's winter in Minnesota, it's cold, whatelse is there?

A dramatic event on my commute home at lunch time.

As I entered the outskirts of my home village one of the first biuldings is a hotel.

There I noticed a lady, as i approached having a problem with what turned out to be her husband.
Just as came alongside them the man collapsed onto the pavement.
I immediatly hopped off my bike to lend assistance.
I assesed straight off that he had suffered a "cardiac Arrest"
Having had first aid qualifications, I set to making him as comfortable as possible.
He had a very faint pulse beat. So again I immediatly started to administor Artificial resusitation.
Couple of minutes of this, Someone dived down beside me and stated she was a nurse, so I let her take over, and assisted her until paramedics arrived ( very quick response on their behalf, great work guys) . so I left the scene
I just hope the guy survives and that our assistance saved his life.
P.S I will stop off at the Hospital tommorrow and check on his well being.

Too cold for me this morning, so I wimped out and drove. -22 C or -8 F with a slight wind for windhill of around -30 C. I'll be back on 2 wheels tomorrow, though, supposed to warm up to -14 C overnight. The guilt is not quite as painiful as the cold!

Hi Folks,

Wow Willic - That must have been a very un-nerving experience. I hope the guy is OK.

I had a fairly uneventful ride in today. A new chain and cassette on the bike meant that I was humming along nicely though.

Cheers,

Ed

Yes Ed..... It certainly is un-nerving, as I mentioned I have first aid Qual`ons, but no amount of training on dummies can prepare you for a "real life situation"

I only hope that prompt action saved his life.
But it was a bad sign when the Medics lost no time in applying the Defribulator to him.

Good job John :thumbup:

whether you saved the man`s life or not, you did all you could!

Ahhh, interesting ride this morning, -6F (-11C), strong wind from the South (in my face) and snow (a rare thing here in Minnesota this year). The traffice was light so it made for a nice, peaceful, quiet ride in. I had no problem with traction, my co-workers who drive claim it wasn't good for them. I look at the fact that I had a head wind on the way in just means a tailwind on the way home (if it doesn't change on me). Life is good!

Had a good ride in this morning. Nice morning ride. Little warm around here lately. I ditched the micro-fleece and had a much nicer ride in today. I am looking forward to a good ride home. Can't believe this is January weather. Temps have been getting up to 80 degrees (F) here. Had a nice tailwind this morning. notched my average up a mph or so.

More proof that bike commuting is good for health! And not just for the bike commuter, but even for bystanders too!

:beer:

Good job Willic.

Well, I was going to ride to work today after a couple of weeks of not riding. I got on the bicycle (my old Schwinn LeTour), and was about a mile away when the noise I had heard from the bottom bracket translated into a wobble on my left crank arm. I recognized it, and turned around. The crank arm came completely loose (off the bike) just a few hundred yard from home. Well, I showed and drove to work. This evening I switched out the damaged crank arm, and will try again tomorrow morning.

John

Cycled home this lunch time with a "heavy heart".

As mentioned on my previous recent posts, I called in at the Hospital A&E dept`t, to enquire on the person who collapsed yesterday

As you may have sumised from my first line, sad to relate the guy (Ted was his name) died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

We fought manfully, the nurse who also came to his assistance and I to sustain his life , but it wasn`t to be.

God bless him and look after.

Sorry to hear the sad outcome Willic. I did a first aid course - for work actually - a little while ago, and have always wondered how I'd feel if presented with an emergency situation like that. I'm sure you did your best. Hope that doesn't sound too patronising, it is certainly not meant that way.


As far as the commute today, it was very windy, and promises to get even more unpleasent and cold as the day wears on. Further north they are expecting snow....

Cheers,

Ed

Found a better route for my commute that is only about 10 minutes longer but much less congested (not to mention better scenery). I didn't have time to take it this morning (used it last night). A co-worker had to pass me at the craziest point of my commute (busy four lane, narrow lanes, no shoulder, lane ends at curb cars HAVE to switch lanes to get around me) and he thought I had a lot of gajongas to be out in the traffic like that (I try and stay off the sidewalk unless I absolutely have to get on it). He suggested a few side streets (have tried all of these and you can die of stop signs on these routes). Anyway, the last two days my speed has been way up. I am wondering if that week of resting while I had Pnemonia had anything to do with it. Getting ready to look for a new road bike. The old Le Mans centurian seems to be getting ready to need a new chain and cogs. Being a six gear cassette I don't think I will be able to fix it without having to spend so much a new bike might not be a better idea.

Remember me saying "very little snow for Minnesota", well, we are getting it daily now. We are not getting allot, it's coming in small increments, just enough to make the roads messy. I still had a nice ride in, the temps are mild. I got to shed a layer this morning. It's actually kind of pretty out there.

Heavy winds today! (8 BF) the last time i had the pleasure of riding in these winds was in Scotland.

Had to work outside on 10 mtr. high scaffolding and the wind was far too heavy for this hight.
But then again, i had a nice view on the village where i work.

Tomorrow says the same wind, more showers...my style of weather :)


enjoy your ride :beer:

last night after work i got a good ride in and saw how out of shape i am.LOL. I rode back over to where I used to live and the hill was much harder to climb than I remembered! any way rode it and another10 miles or so total on this new bike is now 75 I hope to be able to hit 100 by thursday. that should be doable even with my schedule.

Well, Willic, you did your best. Sounds like you did pretty well just to get him to hospital.

Still hot here, still no grass growing on the footpaths. It tried desperately to rain this morning (would have been the first rain in 2003, and January is supposed to be our wettest month!), but it failed once again. :(

Commuted today for the first time on my new cyclocross/commuter. Had a great ride in, only the first few miles were damn cold! Coming back was a nice ride, only those steep hills were a bit of a challenge being the cyclocross gearing is a bit higher. Then some prick turned across both lanes almost hitting me. I knew he saw me because he was smirking when he almost hit me. Spit my gum at him and mouthed "You f-er" at him. What a dick. But I had to laugh.

I have been able to actually hold my insults in when people do stupid things while riding or commuting but when it is malicious I have a hard time not saying anything or giving the odd obscene finger gesture. Any ideas to help keep those in as well?

Willic,

You did your best. Be happy that you were able to help in a time of need. You represented cyclists well.

Having once been a paramedic, and understanding some of the medical physiology behind a sudden cardiac arrest, the chances are that this gentleman had a problem, perhaps even a heart attack, previous to this episode. When a cardiac arrest occurs, something has interrupted the nervious signals to the heart. In a heart attack, a part of the heart muscle dies. Depending upon the "area of infarct" (area of dead or dying tissue affected by the blockage of blood flow), a heart attack can be survivable, or not. Apparently, this was the case where it was not. This means that no matter the treatment given, the person would most likely die due to the amount of damage sustained.

I gues what I'm saying is not to feel too badly that the victim of this arrest did not survive. You did your best, and that's all one can ask. At least the wife and family knows that people care.

My ride was great today, and my now-fixed bicycle functioned very well. I went to a bakery this noon and bought too loaves of bread, plus a non-fat muffin for lunch. Riding home was great, and the weather, while cool, was pleasant today in the Portland area.

John

Take down their # and call the cops.

I find it hard to hold back from shouting sometimes. Especially if the incident was caused by ignorance or innatention.


A truly nasty ride in this morning due to cold weather and a northerly gale that was in my face the whole 8 miles. It cut my speed in half at places - it was all I could do to make forward progress! I was almost shouting insults at the wind :mad: :)

Cheers,

Ed

Shouting insults at the wind is fun. I like to taunt it with things like "come on you pathetic piece of @#$%, is that the best you've got?"

:D

[QUOTE]Originally posted by toolfreak
[B]Heavy winds today! (8 BF) the last time i had the pleasure of riding in these winds was in Scotland.

Hey Mark......Looks like you were receiving our winds after they hit us :)
We had to stop our guys going onto the scaffold also.
The roofers complained we were stopping their bonus`s, but rules ars rules
:D

John C.R........You are spot on with your assumptions.

When I learned of the death of the poor guy, I let it upset me, and emotionaly broke down with the disapointment of not saving his life.
They were very kind and sympathetic toward me,the people in the A & R, room sat me down and explained that yourself and the passing Nurse had done everything you possibly could have, to help, unfortunately the damage he sustained to his Heart was fatal!.
From his medical record they learned he was taking extremely high dosage Beta blockers for high B.P. So I guess you could say he was a heart attack waiting to happen.
Unfortunately when it did occur it was a serious one.