Road Rash Hospital Care

AlreadyHome

As detailed in a recent post, I had a bit of a nasty high-speed spill last Thursday. Managed to avoid serious injury but picked up some really mean road rash down both sides of my body, in particular my hips/thighs and some deep cutting to both elbows.

I'm the sort of person who'll avoid hospital unless I think there's a good chance of a broken bone or something equally serious going on, but next morning thought it was an idea to get the elbows checked out in case they needed stitches.

My whole experience since going to St. Vincents A&E has been absolutely fantastic. Doctor & nurse said I'd done everything right, cleaned everything up again and checked for any grit or debris in wounds (thankfully nothing), dressed wounds carefully, referred me on to an open wounds surgery in St. Michaels, Dun Laoghaire and gave me a sackful of spare bandages, creams, tapes to take away.

St. Michael's turned out to be even better - they covered me head to toe in Duoderm (a must have in any road bikers first aid kit) and antimicrobial silver dressing...probably to the tune of at least a couple hundred quid's worth. Gave me a load of tubular gauze to hold everything in place (and extra when I mentioned I wanted to get back on the bike soonish) and again, a whole load of Duoderm to take away with me, together with a return referral for the end of the week.

I'd absolutely recommend anyone who loses a good bit of skin to head to hospital, even if stitches aren't required. I reckon my healing time as a result of the care I'm getting will have been cut to a fraction of what it would have been otherwise.

Never felt so grateful for a public health service!

They were very good to me in there too when I had a spill.

Did they use that horrible little stiff bristle brush. Shudder.

Fighting Tao

I couldn't fault St. Vincent's when I came off the bike. They were incredible. Hope you recover soon.

Eamonnator

ronoc wrote: »

They were very good to me in there too when I had a spill.

Did they use that horrible little stiff bristle brush. Shudder.

I shivered, when I read this. The memory still lingers.

robyntmorton

The one time I needed patching up was in Colmcille's, Loughlinstown, after I ate the side of a Yaris. Very efficient, mopping me up, giving me a tetanus shot and dispatching me to a dentist.

Hello emergency root canal and a year of dental work!

(Even going through a green light can end badly)

AlreadyHome

ronoc wrote: »

Did they use that horrible little stiff bristle brush. Shudder.

Thankfully not. I picked a nice bit of gravel free tarmac to body-brake on!

robyntmorton wrote: »

Hello emergency root canal and a year of dental work!

The lad that came into A&E immediately after me had managed to get himself tangled up in his own bike on his commute and somehow proceeded to land almost exclusively on his upper incisor. Other than the smashed tooth, the only other damage was slight grazing to his moustache and chin.

My rule when in mid-air, however:

robyntmorton

Slightly OT, but I noticed from my accident that things went kind of into slow motion, at that point where it is too late to change what is about to happen. Just me, or anyone else experience it?

ednwireland

Having been in letterKenny general two years ago for none cycling related issues. Once your in the system it's great. I had mri scans ct scans various scopes. Even had a capsule endoscopy last year to try and find an internal bleed , cause never found mind !
And unless I was on the top level of health insurance. I would have paid more in excess fees than what I paid in daily hospital fees.
The times I have been in hospital. Can't fault the staff.

NeedMoreGears

robyntmorton wrote: »

Slightly OT, but I noticed from my accident that things went kind of into slow motion, at that point where it is too late to change what is about to happen. Just me, or anyone else experience it?

I did the slow motion thing about thirty-five years ago and can still remember it vividly. I was filtering up the left side of a line of traffic. One car on my side left a gap for a van coming from the other direction to turn right across me onto a road joined from the left. Everything went very slow. I could see the van, judge the distance, prepare for the impact, stay upright and lean in a bit in an effort not to go under the wheels, no pint in braking......

Bang ; the hardest thump I have ever received before or since had me rolling on the ground. Slowmo kicked in again when I realized I had to protect my head from hitting the kerb and at the same time keep rolling to keep away from any potential traffic.

Thankfully my head took most of the impact ; no helmets back then. Only heavy bruising to my face and no other damage or consequences.

AlreadyHome

robyntmorton wrote: »

Slightly OT, but I noticed from my accident that things went kind of into slow motion, at that point where it is too late to change what is about to happen. Just me, or anyone else experience it?

In this instance yes - but felt absurdly calm and in control as I gently steered away from the oncoming car. Once that was done and I felt it was time to start thinking about braking...next thing I knew I was on my back about 20 metres down the road, staring up at the sky wondering if my bike was ok

Chuchote

robyntmorton wrote: »

Slightly OT, but I noticed from my accident that things went kind of into slow motion, at that point where it is too late to change what is about to happen. Just me, or anyone else experience it?

Cycling down the ramp into the GPO years ago, shoulder bag swung forward and off the shoulder and into the wheel, the bike somersaulted, I landed on my hands and the whole weight of a bike with two gallon tins of paint on the back came slo-o-o-o-o-w-l-y down with the metal pedal coming towards the back of my outspread hand. I could see it but I couldn't move. Watched it come down and smash down perhaps 4cm from the edge of my hand.

Otoh, another time a gust of wind between two tall buildings in Monkstown caught me as I cycled no-hands adjusting my hat, and the front wheel turned on edge and I came down WHAPPP on the sharp edge on top of the window on a car, hitting my eye socket at the top. Happened too fast to know what was happening.

Chips Lovell

ronoc wrote: »

Did they use that horrible little stiff bristle brush. Shudder.

I got the nailbrush every day for a week. Was huffing laughing gas to beat the band but it still didn't block the pain out completely.

Hungrycol

Jep Gambardella wrote: »

I got the nailbrush every day for a week. Was huffing laughing gas to beat the band but it still didn't block the pain out completely.

I went to Swiftcare the following day cos the road rash didn't look the best, I drew the line on the scrubbing brush... it's only a knee I said, it doesn't have to look pretty! They himed and hawed and said OK and gave me a bucket load of antibiotics. I managed to clean my other wounds sufficiently enough myself and it was the elbow that was on it's way to infection village.