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The news story gives the very basics. The gist is the husband and wife pair were Eastbound on the Creek Turnpike when there was a flat tire, the bike fishtailed and they lost it. The wife was tossed off the bike, the husband went down with it and did more sliding. Neither was wearing a helmet. The speed limit in the area is 75. Anyone’s guess is as good as mine as to exactly how fast they were going when they lost it, but I’d say over 50. My wife and I were Westbound in her Jetta, on the way to a church gathering when we saw the bike fishtail and go down. She grabbed her phone to dial 911 as I flipped a U through the median and ran up on them to assess.
Now I’m nothing but a computer nerd with some first aid training and sometimes too much time on my hands that leads to research, but I know my way around basic trauma care. The woman was closer so I hit her first. As I was checking on her another person came up and checked on the man. He was conscious after a few seconds, with no serious visible bleeding somehow. I yelled at the person to keep him still and don’t move him. I told one not to let him see her. My wife ended up handing the phone off to someone else as she was getting transferred around and wanted to stop talking and start doing something. I ran back to the car and grabbed a small medical kit we happened to have in there.
We gloved up and opened every bit of gauze we had. I was about to pull my shirt off to use that when someone brought us a blanket and socks of unknown cleanness. From the initial call to the time Police showed up was about 15 minutes. Someone handed me the phone at one point to hang it up and the call was at 11:31, no emergency services on site yet.
The woman had ended up laying on her right side and was non-responsive when I first got there, maybe 45 seconds after she hit the pavement. I checked for a radial pulse and found a strong one, but it quickly weakened. I took a better look at her face and it was clear that the reason was because she was bleeding profusely through the nose. I could see the flow pulsing with her heartbeat. In the (probably) two minutes it took us to get to them, get gloved up and start her radial pulse was undetectable. I noticed that she was bleeding out of her left ear canal, which was facing the sky. We could hear breathing a few times. Once she shifted her weight fairly significantly. A second time shortly before or after the police showed up she did it again, but less noticeably. I later came to the conclusion that this was when her body gave in.
The police officer gloved up, but offered no assistance that I remember. He might have checked for a pulse. Fire/Rescue showed up a few minutes later. By that time I’d lost her jugular/carotid pulse. I ran to meet the techs and gave a quick rundown of the victims’ conditions. Whether he listened or not I don’t know. They cleared us out and each one took a victim to assess. Within two minutes they’d covered her up and focused on stabilizing the man. The officer who was first to respond took information and statements from us and a couple other witnesses. Took my CWL and asked me if I was carrying. When I acknowledged he simply told me to leave it where it was.
One of the other witnesses who had offered some assistance then started commenting on the fact that she and her husband ride, but always wear helmets, and about how the man will (or should. I don’t recall exactly the word she used.) “feel bad for getting his wife killed.” I’m no medical professional, and I’m no ME. Based on what I saw of her injuries though, I think a helmet might have given her a fighting chance. I agree that they should have been wearing them in my opinion. I still wanted to slug her. The man lost his wife and was fighting for his own life. The last thing he needed was an armchair quarterback telling him she hopes he feels bad.
My wife dumped adrenaline pretty hardcore, and was on autopilot the whole time. After the officer let us go it took about ten minutes and she crashed. We continued to the church gathering, knowing it was small and intimate, with a couple very close friends, a couple acquaintances and a man who’s a first responder himself. A good group to debrief and lean on. I got about an hour and a half of sleep Sunday night, woke up at 3 Monday, was at the office at 4 and left on a 3 1/2 hour trip to assist a couple clients of my company who were affected by the tornadoes over the weekend.
After speaking about it with my doctor, who I was visiting due to sickness from lack of sleep, he said it sounded like a basal skull fracture, and that nothing I could have done would have likely helped. That said, I still learned my car kit needs help. Especially since I left it there. Nothing very valuable in it, and it was scattered all over the place by the end. They didn’t want us near the site, so I left it there.
So I need help rebuilding it. I’m thinking I need more absorbent material, but I might fall back on shop towels (blue disposable kind) rather than stocking up on huge amounts of gauze. The wife and I talked about it some last night. We want basic necessities and medical supplies in the cars. We know we’re going to toss in a 3600 calorie Mainstay ration pack, some water, a mylar blanket and a couple 30-minute road flares. As for the medical stuff: some basic bandages, a couple rolls of gauze, antibiotic and burn ointments, tape, Celox, shop towels. Any other ideas? Again, I’m not a medical professional at all, my wife is graduating as a pharmacist in a couple months.
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