April 8, 2010

Hand Brake

via Spoke Magazine
hope-hand-xray
When Kevin Myatt dropped his chain powering into Dragons Tail in Whakarewarewa a few days ago he couldn’t in his wildest dreams have imagined how the slam would unfold. After sliding along the ground he realised the bike was still with him and glancing down at his wrist he soon realised why. His brake lever had slid up his arm (slicing it open on the way) and then pierced the skin on his wrist surfacing a few centimetres later, as Kevin puts it, he was now “at one with his bike.
Hope-hand-01His riding buddies Julia and Tim called the ambulance and quickly removed the brake lever and caliper from the bike whilst Kevin Stemmed the blood flow from his own wrist. Now I’m pretty sure that you like me have never seen this type of wound before, as it happens neither had any of Rotorua’s health professionals, starting with the ambo guys; when one realised there wasn’t enough light to shoot a good photo he instructed his partner to use the flashlight to illuminate it better. Kevin didn’t fare much better at Rotorua hospital either where at least 10 hospital staff heard about the brake lever and turned up with personal cameras and cell phones.
hope-hand-hospital
Even the radiologist who had been on strike admitted on seeing the wound that she was glad she came in to work!!! A general anesthetic and 15 stitches later, Kevin was good to go. As soon as the stitches are out he’ll be back in the forest and is not deterred one ounce by his freakish (yet slightly entertaining) wound.
hope-hand-stich

6 comments:

Snak Shak said...

OH MY GOD!!

Anonymous said...

http://alanb.com/spicoli/gnarly.au

Unknown said...

Cyborg

tom robinson said...

Talk about an integrated brake lever! [rimshot.]

Suzanne Atkinson said...

As both an ER doc and a mountain biker. I think this is frickin' awesome. I hope you heal fast and well and hit the trails again soon!

Anonymous said...

On x-ray looks like transformers ;)