Bike Forums - Watch Yourself

While on a ride the carbon fiber fork on my bike fell apart. This dropped me on my face knocking me completely out for over 5 minutes.

Luckily I was with friends and they called the ambulance which took me to the local emergency hospital.

Here's the problem: the hospital treated some relatively minor facial wounds and never looked any further. The problem is that I had some brain damage which essentially removed my memory from one second to the next.

So apparently I was walking and talking but there was no "me" there. Over the next six months I managed to get into all sorts of financial and legal troubles including a drunk driving charge despite the fact that the "real me" only drinks a little wine with dinner when he isn't going to drive anywhere.

But the drunk driving charge was connected to a car accident in which I drove into a stone wall along-side the road I was driving on. Apparently they locked me up and everything. Then they let me go and I STILL didn't know who I was.

After having my brand new car restored I again had an accident this time apparently on the way to a doctor's appointment. This totalled the car and almost totalled me. I was three weeks in the hospital and a recovery clinic!

Finally someone called my younger brother who was aghast and immediately took me to a neurologist who prescribed some drugs. The next morning - MORE THAN SIX MONTHS AFTER MY ACCIDENT - I awoke more or less "me" again.

Before all this I was a super young 65 that rode my bike 4 or 5 times a week. I was vibrant and healthy and interested in everything.

Now I'm an old man almost 66. I ride 2 days a week but only on short easy rides. I have no interest in anything.

I can find no lawyer interested in pursuing the emergency hospital for not treating me properly.

Watch out for yourself and make sure that you have friends that will help watch out for you should something happen that puts you out of it. Without my brother I'd be in prison and still not "me".