Helmet Education--The Traumatic Way

I'm a pretty big proponent of bicycle helmets, and motorcycle helmets for that matter. I've taken enough bad spills off of a bike to know what a helmet can do for you. One wreck in particular split my bike helmet completely in half, I'm sure it saved me from a serious head injury that day. Nothing pisses me off more than to see some 8 or 10 year old riding their little BMX bike around without a helmet, or worse, with the helmet on but the chin strap not clipped.

Two weeks ago, my partner and I ran a vehicle versus bicycle on the main highway through town. The location was on a little bridge at the north wye, it was 35 mph (which meant most people went 40-45), and the bridge was narrow with high sidewalks on either side. Locals would crab or fish off of the bridge and there was always plenty of pedestrian traffic.

As we approached, traffic was stopped in all directions, always a bad sign. Worse, a group of bystanders were crouched in the middle of the highway, waving us in. From experience, it's always bad when the bicyclist is still lying in the roadway when you arrive. He was prone, a small amount of blood around his head from a laceration we could see from the unit. But he was moving, frantically, and wouldn't hold still.

There was road rash to his back and flanks. He'd landed on his messenger bag that was slung around him, protecting his front side. Obviously, he hadn't been wearing his helmet. The driver that hit him said he'd just turned into traffic, then the car hit him and he was thrown up onto the car before rolling to the ground. Bystanders verified the story, as did the giant dent and spidering of the windshield on the driver's car. The kid's bike was pretty bent up, too.

We rolled the kid onto the backboard and it was then I recognized him. He was a local, someone everyone in town knew. Maybe not by name, but by face at least. He had a slight developmental disability and was always seen riding his bike around town, though never with a helmet. Numerous times, I'd seen him dart into traffic without looking, acting like he owned the road. And most times, I was expecting him to get hit.

He was asking repetitive questions, had a positive loss of consciousness, and was uncooperative, whether from the DD or the head injury, we didn't know. We put him into the trauma system which meant a 20 minute drive to the trauma center. Packaging the patient was rough as he wouldn't cooperate, but we did it quickly, had him loaded, and were on our way. Vitals were taken, IVs were started, oxygen was applied, and an ECG was obtained. All was normal.

We were met by the trauma team, nurses and doctors done up in paper gowns. Other specialists had arrived from the golf course or from their on-call day at home, wearing jeans or khakis. It's always an interesting collection of doctors and specialists that come together at the arrival of a level 1 trauma. The patient was calm and cooperative by this point, and no other injuries were found other than the superficial ones.

The kid was held at the trauma hospital overnight for observation and presumably released the next day with the addition of a few stitches.

Funny thing is, I was driving into town yesterday, and here was the kid riding along on a new bike. This time though, he had on a bright, shiny new red helmet.