{"id":1174,"date":"2019-04-22T13:30:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T18:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sunlightbay.com\/blog\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2019-06-02T11:08:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T16:08:13","slug":"the-anatomy-of-a-bike-wreck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sunlightbay.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/22\/the-anatomy-of-a-bike-wreck\/","title":{"rendered":"The Anatomy of a Bike Wreck"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

It was a good day for a ride on January 5th\u2014clear but a little chilly (mid-forties when we left). Several of us old timers met near the Clinton Presidential Museum at 9:00 for a ride of about 30 miles. We biked through downtown Little Rock, south toward College Station and Sweethome. I made it only about 4.25 miles before I crashed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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From left to Right: Coreen, Mike, Janice, Scott, me, Carl; our ride leader, Jim, took the picture<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One question, actually the biggest question, is what caused me to fall. One possible cause was syncope, which is a temporary loss of consciousness from insufficient blood flow to the brain–fainting. The doctor in the ER mentioned this as a possibility, and I saw the word several times on my medical chart. From my health record at UAMS the doctor knew I had had an episode of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which is a very fast heart rhythm. Syncope can be caused by SVT.\u00a0 However, I don’t think that SVT could have caused me to pass out, because I believe I would have felt it coming on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Blue line at the bottom is speed<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I ride with at Garmin 820 Edge bike computer. I have a chest strap that syncs with the Garmin to record my heart rate. The Garmin collects heart rate data, GPS and other data.\u00a0 The data automatically syncs with a Garmin website where I can review the uploaded data. From this data I can gain insight into what happened at the moment of the crash.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019m pretty sure I would have recognized a symptom of SVT (weakness, when I had it before). I usually keep my Garmin set on a screen that shows heart rate, distance, speed, average speed, cadence, and grade.\u00a0 If I had felt anything unusual, I would have looked at my heart rate monitor to see what my heart rate was. The Garmin data supports my theory. My heart rate at the time of the crash was 111 bpm, and there was no indication that my heart rate got anywhere near the SVT range (176 bpm during my previous episode). Several minutes before I crashed my heart rate was 150. That\u2019s pretty high for me, but not unusual. And it came down quickly when we stopped for a bit to wait for some riders behind us.\u00a0 It is interesting to examine the graph of my speed at the time of the crash.\u00a0 The data show that the speed drops precipitously to about 3 mph, and that it took another 40 seconds to reach zero.\u00a0 I assume that after I crashed the rear wheel continue to spin, which would explain why the Garmin recorded speed even after I had apparently crashed.\u00a0 I was traveling about 20 mph at the time of the crash; we had just gone down a pretty steep hill, which would account for our fast speed, although the spot of the crash was rather flat.\u00a0 Hitting the ground at that speed could hurt a fellow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The only other way to evaluate what could have caused the fall is from eyewitness reports. Jim and Scott were ahead of us and didn\u2019t see the crash. I was just ahead of Janice, so she saw what happened. She texted me her account:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

You might want to also tell the doctor that when I got to you (immediately ) you were on your back and you\u00a0were unconscious. Your eyes were partially open, but not awake. Your breathing was shallow and irregular and sounded raspy, noisy, (like low pitched snorting or snoring) and did not not sound normal. Also you were foaming at the mouth, drooling a little.\u00a0 Coreen probably has a record of how long she was on the phone with 911 which might give you a better estimate of how long before you recovered and gained consciousness.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

In a second text, she added more insight:<\/p>\r\n

In talking, the group is concerned that maybe you fell off the bike because you passed out.\u00a0 I was so close that I didn’t have time to really see. There was a dip in the road, but it looked like all of a sudden you fell off the bike.\u00a0 Coreen and Mike were behind me and they had a different perspective.\u00a0 But you were unconscious several minutes.\u00a0 It seemed like a long time.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n

When I talked to Mike and Coreen, who were a bit behind me but saw the crash, they thought that I just fell over for no obvious reason–syncope.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Carl was the other eyewitness. He was just behind Janice. He visited me in the ER, and we talked about what he saw. He also described a dip in the road associated with a pothole that could have been hard to see.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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Dip in the Road\/Pothole (Click on the picture to see a larger view)<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I went back to the place where I crashed to look for the dip in the road.\u00a0 I was able to locate the crash site pretty precisely using the Garmin GPS data and pictures that Jim took at the site.\u00a0 I believe I found the “dip in the road” that Janice and Carl described.\u00a0 It’s not a huge pothole, but certainly big enough to cause a wreck if I hit it unexpectedly.\u00a0 \u00a0We will never know for sure. I hope the pothole was the cause; I would hate to think I could pass out for no obvious reason. What about while driving a car?<\/p>\r\n

I have no recollection of anything before or after the crash. I remember being in the ambulance. Apparently, I sat on the tailgate of a pickup truck while waiting on the ambulance, but I don\u2019t remember that. In the ambulance the EMT asked me who the President was. My answer was Obama, either because I was really confused or I was wishfully thinking of times past. In a few minutes I realized that I had given the wrong answer and told the EMT; I\u2019m sure he didn\u2019t change his assessment about my confusion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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To have had such a concussion-producing crash, I wasn’t in much pain. I had a small abrasion near my right elbow, which hardly bled. My right shoulder was sore for a time, but not that much. I had a sore place on my right rib cage that I didn’t even notice at first. After a few days my rib cage started to hurt–it hurt to take a deep breath or to move very much or exercise the muscles like doing a sit-up. \u00a0But, that pain only lasted one or two days.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I was taken to UAMS ER where I was given the following tests:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n