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I was just riding along, stopped to check &....

I was out for a mountain bike ride last Saturday with my riding buddy Mark & we decided to go & check out the new trail 'Mangrove alley' which everyone is talking about. The trail leading down to it is great fun with lots of steep rooty sections, twisty singletrack & then a nice fallen down tree to either jump or ride over. It was great, I hadn't been down there for a while & had forgotten how much fun it is. So instead of carrying on along that trail we headed off down the new one. Having only seen pictures & people coming back to the shop battered & bruised I was determined to be safe & check it out first time before blasting down it. I approached the first bit of north shore & it looked easy, but having seen pictures of drop offs from the north shore I thought I'd just walk across & see what was there. No problem, easy peasy. I turned around to walk back & my foot slipped between two of the logs.....

It hurt, but no big deal, managed to stop myself tumbling backwards & then pulled my leg out expecting to see a scratch, as it appeared I thought, well maybe a graze then & then..Oh my god I can see inside my leg, it had been sliced open going through skin, tissue, muscle & it was gaping, at least 2" wide. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Being very squeamish & prone to fainting I vowed not to look at it again.

I hopped back over the bridge & the first drop of blood began to fall so I quickly lay down & elevated my leg by resting it on the handlebars of my handily placed bike. It seemed to work & no more blood appeared. Mark headed back off up the trail to call for help while I lay there wondering if he'd find his way back as it was his first time ever in these woods. So I managed to get my phone out of my camelback & called Simon at the shop to explain where I was & could he come & help. The tone of his his voice was 'oh yeah, how bad can it be' but figuring he'd understand when he saw it I wasn't too concerned.

Meanwhile Mark had returned with a lost walker whom he had come across in the woods & he agreed to stay with me while Mark went back to meet the ambulance. John the walker was superb & kept me talking, albeit standing side on & trying not to look at the leg. When I got my aluminium blanket out to put on as I was getting a bit cold I was going to wrap it round my body but John eagerley pulled it over the length of my body & tucked it underneath the bike, thereby covering the leg!

After not too long at all the paramedic turned up. He kindly put a dressing on it & once it was covered I felt much better. The ambulance crew were on their way down with a stretcher, but fearing that this would be quite hazardous I said I was happy to walk if that was ok. The paramedic said this would be fine so off we went. It took a while but we managed to get back to the waiting ambulance.

Epsom hospital were superb in cleaning out the wound initially, but said I'd have to go to St Helier to have it cleaned & sewn up under anaesthetic. I then had one last drama whilst in theatre. My heart went a bit pear shaped & started beating a 170bpm, unable to slow it down after 15mins, they apparently talked to me through an anaestetic haze, although I have no recollection and explained they were going to stop my heart & restart it again...I can't imagine agreeing to have my heart switched off & then back on again like a light switch...but needs must & thankfully everything went back to normal...a day in the office for them, a glimpse at my own mortality for me!

Lessons learnt...don't bother checking, just ride the damm thing...just kidding. Thank god I was with someone, as I would happily have ridden this trail on my own & would have been pretty scared if someone wasn't with me. Maybe wear some sort of leg protection, either trousers or leg armour. This is the second accident of it's kind in a couple of months & both times we weren't doing anything lary, it was an innocuous accident.

Big thanks to all who helped...and the NHS has many faults, but in it's clinical care & emergency response it's first class.

Jackie

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