I have a 20 year old nephew named Andy. He hasn't been, how shall I say, "on the right track" for the past couple of years. He's a good kid, but has made some bad choices recently. His worst choice took place a couple of Friday's ago.
He was street racing on his motorcycle down a residential street (no need to comment on the idiocy; we're all very aware, and especially he is). He was going about 60 mph until the road turned and he was forced to slow down. There was a car on the opposite side of the street where it turned, and Andy didn't have enough control to make the turn. He slammed into the parked car at about 40 mph, and was thrown over it onto the lawn.
Given the fact that he was sans helmet, he came out of it pretty well. He broke his left femur, and had a small fracture in the tibia of the same leg. They put a titanium rod in his upper thigh, from his hip to his knee, which he will have for the rest of his life. They also put pins into the lower leg, to keep the bones stabilized.
We had a family BBQ this past Saturday, and Andy was able to hobble to the patio, where he sat with his leg up for most of the afternoon. He was pleasant and grateful (straying from his norm) and it really gave me optimism to see how nice he was to his siblings and mom.
My sister is an emergency room RN, so she's accustomed to seeing all sorts of injuries. It has been very hard for her to see her own son in such a condition. She's also used to sending patients home or to another floor, so she doesn't normally have exposure to the healing process. Healing is slow and painful, she's learning. I think this experience has been a good one for everyone in their family. I think they are growing closer, and I think they will have more respect for one another as well. It's good.
2 comments:
Sorry to hear about Andy's accident. It sometimes takes the worst possible thing to make us realize how crazy we were in doing the wrong thing. We have all done something stupid, maybe some don't have the same results he did, but we all learn a lesson, usually. Let him know we are hoping for his fast recovery.
I hope he finds his way to Miller Motorsports park over in Tooele when he get better. All the thrills with nothing to hit when things get all pear shaped.
I've crashed on the track too many times and I can't imagine doing it on the street.
Broken femurs are a big deal; potentially life threatening. I'm glad he healing and didn't have anything serious (bones heal so racer's don't consider broken bones serious :)).
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