My Favorite Ride (Miracles do Happen)
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  1. #1
    "Bagger" kjelders's Avatar
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    My Favorite Ride (Miracles do Happen)

    Yesterday, my good friend and his wife started our yearly ride of the North Cascade Hwy Loop. I met Clark and his wife for the first time 6 years ago at the Diablo Lake view point. We have been great buds ever since.

    We left Clarks house around 9:00 am to start the ride. We made our "usual" stopping places before reaching my favorite part of the 600 mile ride. It's call Diablo Canyon. Great twisties you can take without breaking. Except for one spot. A 25mph corning at the bridge over the lake. It doesn't mean you can go 26mph. As we were making our approach to the bridge from the opposite end and could see the bridge, I fixated on the object I saw on the other end of the bridge. It was a pop-up tent trailer. I soon realised is was a down bike. we stopped short of the wreck behind a car that was in front of us.

    I'm a trauma nurse, so my instincts kicked in. I stopped the bike, got off and approach the scene. That's when I noticed a second bike, a later model Road King up against the guardrail. A car in front of the scene saw the accident in their mirrors. The rider of what I then realized was a Gold Wing was sitting leaning up against the guard rail. I was walking toward him when the man driving the car in front of the accident yelled, "I found him, he is down the embankment". This was the rider of the Harley. I climbed over the guard rail to look down where he was pointing. At the bottom of a steep 20 foot embankment with large rocks covered with moss was a man with most of his body on the edge of the lake shore with his right boot in the water. About this same time a lady behind me came up and said I'm a cardiac nurse. With no thinking involved I grab her hand and we jumped off the 20 foot embankment to get to the Harley rider. "Who says white men can't jump.....and ladies too. She didn't hesitate when I grabbed her hand. It was like she had the same thought. WE JUMPED! We landed on our feet without any after stutter steps. That's one miracle right there. I still had my jacket and gloves on. I don't remember doing it, but before we jumped I took my modular helmet off and dropped it to the ground.

    Upon reaching the victim he was flat on his back with labored snoring respirations and blood coming out of his mouth. He was unconscious. Within seconds a 3rd person is down the embankment. He says "I'm a Paramedic." God's timing is impeccable. 3 total strangers arrive at an accident within seconds of each other. All 3 first responders have medical experience....Cardiac Nurse, Off duty Paramedic, a Trauma Nurse. God has our lives under control. There's no other way to explain it.

    The 3 of us begin to administer aid. The paramedic is holding the victims head and neck, the cardiac nurse is palpating to check pulse, I have the paramedic's knife and start cutting his leather jacket and shirt off to be able to assess the injuries and was doing the "knuckle rub" on his chest while saying to the victim, "stay with me buddy, stay with me". Each time I did this he would try to open his eyes But then the pupils would rolled back and I would start the knuckle rub again. By this time the forest service ranger, and county sheriff arrives. The have more advance life support equipment with them. The people up top formed a bucket brigade line down to the victim and us and start to lower the equipment we needed. I yelled to have the sheriff to invoke Medi-Vac as the victim needed to be air-lifted out. The 3 of us instinctively together took different jobs to stabilize the victim. The paramedic applied a c-collar to stabilize the neck. The cardiac nurse using the blood cuff to palpate a blood pressure as I applied oxygen with a non rebreather mask. We we able to stabilize the victim to a point that we could with what equipment we had.

    We heard from the others at the top of the embankment that land paramedics were 30 minutes out and medi-vac air lift was 50 minutes out coming from Seattle. When the 3 of us hear the times, we all 3 said at the same time, he doesn't have 30 minutes. From the assessment, I knew he was bleeding out in the chest. You could see the blood pooling under the chest. We could not get a blood pressure which means he doesn't have enough blood volume to supply the vital organs. However, we do not have a IV equipment to replenish the blood volume loss. We have to wait until the paramedics get to the scene. I started what is called secondary assessment now that we had the patient stable to a point the best we could. I saw a circular blood spot ring with an inner ring of different color on his jeans over his right knee. That is a sign of a compound fracture. The inner ring of the stain come from bone marrow. I begin to cut his jeans away and could then see he had a compound fracture at his knee. I could see the bone.

    We monitored his breathing and pulse while we waited. The conversation turn to how we plan to move the patient as it is a very steep embankment with large rocks covered with moss. I asked the ranger if they had a boat that once we have the patient in the rescue basket we could transport the patient across the lake to the boat dock. The ranger said they did have a boat but will need to go get it. We loaded the patient into the rescue basket and decided not to wait for the boat and manually lifted the patient back up the embankment.

    At the same time we got the patient to street level the paramedics arrived and we loaded the patient on the stretcher while he is still in the basket. Once I let go of the basket when he was put on the stretcher, I collapsed to my knees. I was totally exhausted. Between the adrenaline rush and working on the patient with my legs bent underneath me, I could no longer stand. My friend Clark later told me we were down there for 57 minutes.

    Within ten minutes of getting the patient in the ambulance, Medi-Vac flew over ahead and made a beach landing on a very small spot. It was incredible to see the skills of the pilot make that landing. ......more to come
    KJ
    SOLD 2013 F6B Black Deluxe
    2014 Victory Cross Country Tour
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  2. #2
    Member Hambly434's Avatar
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    Nice Work

    You 3 are Heroes in my book Kj.
    Way to give that rider a fighting chance.
    Keep us posted

  3. #3
    "Bagger" kjelders's Avatar
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    Re-assessing afterwards

    The pilot lifted off the beach with the same precision as landing. The patient is on his way to Harberview Medical Center.

    It took me at least 10 minutes before I could stand with help. People I didn't know or get their name brought us water, gatorade, and snacks. I'm a insulin dependant diabetic. So with the adrenaline rush, it dropped my blood sugar.

    While sitting, another rider came up to me and said, "I'm with Ed, I'm his friend of 30 years and we have been riding together on this trip." He broke down and starting crying. I put my arm around him and told him, not knowing what happened, "Do not blame yourself. We all know when we throw our legs over a bike, ultimately we our responsible for our self, no one else. " Ian, is this guys name. They are both from Vancouver, BC. He told me they just left the lookout point 2 miles up the mountain and was heading down. The 2 mile stretch is very twisty. Ian was riding a 2012 BMW F1200 adventure bike. He got ahead of Ed. He thinks Ed was trying to catch up and saw that when Ian took the corner on a much lighter weight bike he didn't have to hit his brake, Ed must of thought the curve wasn't that bad.

    The couple in the car told me that when they reach the corner going up and saw Ed, Ed was already over the center line. In fact they felt something hit the driver's side rear tire. The lady in the passenger seat of the car turn to look back at the time Ed's Harley struck the Gold Wing head on. She said she saw Ed's body doing a Superman flight over the guardrail and disappear. After sometime I walked over Ed's Road King. It was on it's left side. I looked at the right floorboard. The floorboard is attached with a spring loaded pin that allows the boards to fold up when dragged. Underneath the board is a solid piece of metal welded to the frame. On the outer corner of floor board bracket I see fresh shiny grind marks. I'm very certain when Ed tried taking the corner he didn't heed the warning of the floor board scraping and leaned too far over contacting the non movable metal which then would cause the bike to stand straight up. It was a head on collision with the Gold Wing. (pictures taken by my friend Clark)

    Attachment 8735 Attachment 8736

    Attachment 8737Attachment 8738

    .....more to come
    KJ
    SOLD 2013 F6B Black Deluxe
    2014 Victory Cross Country Tour
    EZRIDE
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  4. #4
    "Bagger" kjelders's Avatar
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    Update on the two riders

    I didn't get the gold wing riders name as others where tending to him. I understand he probably has a broken wrist. He was wearing a 3/4 helmet and had lacerations and road rash to the face. He was taken by ground ambulance and I'm not sure which hospital. When you look at the pictures of his bike, by all rights he shouldn't be alive. He was walking around and gathering up personal items from the wreck. They kept a close eye on him until the paramedic took over.

    Ed, the Harley Rider:

    I had Ian following me to Harbor View Medical Center. I didn't not want him riding alone. It took us 2.5 hours from where the accident was to the hospital. Upon our arrival, ED was getting another CT as the doctor discovered a small bleed in the head from the body CT done earlier. Ed's wife, son and son's girlfriend arrive at the hospital about 50 minutes after Ian and I did. They drove down from Vancouver, BC.

    Ed was wearing a half helmet. It was still on his head and strapped when we got to him. PLEASE DO NOT remove a rider's helmet that has been in an accident. The paramedic and I have advance training to know how to remove a rider's helmet involved in an accident. ok, off my preaching.

    As of this morning, ED is in ICU with a collapse right lung, multiple right rib fractures, and the small head bleed. The head bleed was determined to be stable so they operated on Ed's right leg. He has a right femur compound fracture, and fractured his Tibia which pushed up through his right knee and fractured his knee. He leg was operated on at midnight lasting 5 hours. This is the first surgery of many more to come to repair his leg. I'm not sure if he will be able to ever walk again. Ed is consider to be in a critical state but stable and on a ventilator for breathing. He has a long long way to recovery.

    Ian is doing ok. That is expected. I talked with him this morning.

    All I can say is God put us 3 together at the right place with perfecting time. All the training and experience the 3 of us have in the medical field was tested yesterday in extreme conditions with limited equipment.

    Miracles still happen!
    KJ
    SOLD 2013 F6B Black Deluxe
    2014 Victory Cross Country Tour
    EZRIDE
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  5. #5
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    Yes, miracles do happen everyday...I have witnessed similar situations in my life and my faith in the Lord as never let me down....You people will be blessed for helping and making personal sacrifices in what appeared to be a life threating and very dangerous ordeal to help out our fellow human beings.....The world needs more people like you and those that assisted in this accident!!!!...You will indeed find blessings down the road for your efforts......Regards

  6. #6
    Admin - Chief poop scooper Phantom's Avatar
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    Kevin, Kudos to you and everyone.

    I said it before and I will say it again, I'm proud to be associated with this fine group of 1st class individuals.

    I hope that everyone heals and are able to ride again, even if it is a trike.
    Hoping that they get back on the saddle once again, it's the best therapy to a great recovery.




    Successful people build each other up. They motivate, inspire and push each other. Unsuccessful people just hate, blame and complain.

  7. #7
    Moderator Hornblower's Avatar
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    Wow, what a story! I'll keep Ed on the prayer list so definitely, keep us posted on his recovery. I am one who believes that it was no coincidence that you and the others were there to help save Ed's life.
    Ken (Hornblower)

  8. #8
    Senior Member 53driver's Avatar
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    Kudos to you Kevin and your well trained associates.
    The miracle is that you and the others were there.
    I am not a trauma nurse, paramedic, or cardiac nurse, but I am now looking for people with those qualifications as my riding buddies.

    I am First Aid, CPR and AED trained - as are All MSF Rider Coaches - and I hope in a similar situation, I would react with some professionalism and be able to assist - even if it was to fly the helicopter.
    But if the I hope there is someone smarter than me on scene.

    Again, well done to you.
    Steve
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  9. #9
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    Bravo Zulu Kevin, to you and the other two first responders.
    The entire outcome of that accident is miraculous.
    The pictures of the accident look to be at the colonial creek campground bridge.
    Just as you head up towards Ross Lake.
    I know the winds gust pretty strong through there.
    Blessings to you, the other responders and to the victims.

  10. #10
    Senior Member bobbyf6b's Avatar
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    Good work KJ!

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