Crashes Life after traumatic brain injury...SO YA DON'T WEAR A HELMET?!?!

[hybrid]

Been through it! Was in a wreck a couple of years ago and even the most mundane tasks became unreal challenges. Tying shoelaces, threading a belt through a belt loop, etc. Took a while and I had a nasty bout with seizures for a bit but slowly it all started getting better. I bet you'll get back a lot - Just take time...

 

[SimpleSimon]

I pretty much agree with TT as regards this question, with one caveat.

Bike accident with no other vehicle/pedestrian involved and the bicyclist is NOT WEARING a helmet, first responder should just call for HAZMAT to clean up the spilled gas/oil/blood.

No EMT's, no ambulance, no trauma team in the e-room. Why waste the resources on someone who doesn't value their own life and health? Let them bleed out or recover on their own - they are such rugged individualists we should respect their choice.

 

[Turtle Tedd]

Yea always wore a helmet when riding motorcycles on the road , in the woods or on a track..When I built my Del Mar China Girl I bought a new helmet..a pretty heavy duty BMX helmet..started riding later in the afternoon when the sun was pretty low and still bright down here in Fla. After 35 years working as a Welder, my eyes are pretty sensitive to bright light..Dark prescription sunglasses and a large brim cotton Boony hat worked better ... Bad decision for me..Have had many injuries, broken bones and 4 minor concussions...but head bouncing on concrete a few times at 25 or 30 mph this time did me in...few more broken bones ,but the Traumatic Brain Injury did not look good ..In coma for most of 24day stay in trauma unit of hospital..It has been 1year and about 8months since..Doing OK ..pretty much fully functional and can walk now and drive my Jeep..No more motorcycles or 2 wheel motorbikes , have some bad balance/equilibrium problems and stay a little dizzy with headaches most all day..Now have a Tadpole Trike that I pedal around and plan to put a small 4-strocker motor on it soon..can get things done , but it takes a lot of concentration and about 4 times as long as it used to..Get real tired and dizzy now after a couple hours and have to take a nap..Keep telling myself its probably because I am an old geezer. My helmet is on all the time now even though I am riding a low to the ground trike, usually at about 6 to 10 MPH.....but Helmet or no Helmet ..its up to you...Yeh. I have always been a "tough guy' and the Grim Reaper has been close on my tail most of my life..This time he caught me. I did get away but he did some permanent damage

 

[hybrid]

If the grim reaper has your number on such and such day....I think he (or she) just has your number. You can wear a helmet but might end up getting "done-in" on "X" day by a defective toaster. I have compassion for anyone who tests the boundaries of safety and ends up coming up short. We are humans and a percentage of us thrive and feed off thrill. It's a sad yet predictable statistic that's built into the human condition. A "flaw". There are risks associated with surfing (you could have your arm bit off by a shark), parachuting (the obvious)
and kayaking. I would not be apathetic to someone who chose these activities anymore than a police officer or a fireman killed in the line of duty. Noone MADE them choose their professions...

 

[RedBaronX]

Hard to believe there is even any debate on this.

Everybody take note: the article Happy Valley posted shows a bicycle vs. "conditions" accident, and the cyclist "lost" the battle. We can't know if this rider would have merely walked away if he had been wearing a DOT approved motorcycle helmet, but I myself would not want to play the odds.

 

[SimpleSimon]

It is kind of funny too me. I was an adrenaline junkie as a younger man; biking, skiing, rock climbing, sport parachute jumping, hang gliding, flying ultralight aircraft, bungee jumping, driving high performance automobiles to the ragged edges of performance (beyond, a few times).

I sought out dangerous places and high risk activities, in the process visiting 35 countries and 5 continents. Including spending time in Angola during the civil war there, and flying solo in an ultralight across the Okavongo Swanp in Botswana during the wet season, a long time before there were "adventure safari" outfits operating there.

In every single case, I made a concerted effort to learn the risks beforehand, and prepare for them - including using equipment appropriate to the activity contemplated. I sustained a few injuries, but all were rather less than circumstances might have otherwise produced, because I prepared for the possibility.

If you choose to take risks, enjoy yourself doing so. Just exercise the single greatest tool you have to reduce them to manageability - your brains!

WEAR A HELMET.

 

[loquin]

No safety device is guaranteed to save your life under all conditions. However ... a helmet, even a bike helmet, CAN make the accident more survivable.

I read an article a few years ago, where a mountain biker went over the handle bars, head first into a rock, about 10 feet below. The helmet split open in the middle, he had a gash underneath where the helmet split, a concussion, and a cracked vertebra. But he lived to ride again, with no permanent brain trauma. Had he hit the top of his head on the rock without the helmet, it would have been his skull that split open.

Now, if he had hit the rock harder, he might not have survived. But, a helmet gives you a better chance of surviving a given accident. IT absorbs some of the force that would otherwise go towards damaging your noggin.

I look at it this way - Wearing a helmet is one way that you can stack the deck in your favor, in the event of a potential head trauma accident. It's NOT a magic shield, and it may not work as you hope. But, it improves the odds of you still being the same person, if that day comes.

 

[sparky]

If people are planning on riding without a helmet, they need to know what the hardest part of the skull is....



.... the teeth.

Just food for thought.

:helmet:

 

[jackofalltrades]

The helmet wars....simple..Those who do not wish to use helmets..Dont ..who cares

I care...especially if my tax dollars are used for treatment. This may sound somewhat cold, but those who make poor choices shouldn't make the rest of us pay. Example...I had to go to ER (my bad decision to use a knife improperly, but I have insurance and can pay for my treatment). On the other side of the curtain was a fellow about 40 years old. He had "another episode" according to the EMTs. Apparently he is a regular customer. homeless, habitual drug user, several "nasty" communicable diseases etc. Who is paying his bill? Me and several thousand other taxpayers that choose to live healthy productive lives. Why should I have to pay for others poor decisions?

 

[fm2200]

I now think that if your on your gas powered bike you should not approach intersections that have no traffic light with the assumption that the car will stop. 98% of the time they will yield to you, but if the driver is so busy with his cell phone, texting or talking, this puts you at risk. I rode a motorcycle everyday for 3 years while in south Texas, I had a few close calls and one guy hit me while I was leaving a gas station. I went right over his hood up to the windshield, I jumped up off the motorcycle to avoid the full impact of the car. I got cuts and banged up, the motorcycle got really damaged. I now know that the gas bike is way more dangerous than the motorcycle. The average driver does not take the time to judge your speed.