Yet another wear your helmet thread...

I just got back from a short vacation in Daytona Beach, FL. A friend of mine got married on Friday and I was the best man. :thumbsup:

His wife's sister was there. She and her husband were involved in a motorcycle accident. He got a broken pinkie finger. She was severely messed up. Neither were wearing helmets.

This happened a few months ago. She was in a coma for a few weeks. Had extensive cosmetic surgery on her head. Unfortunately, she isn't right mentally and it is uncertain if she ever will be.

Her Dad was there and explaining all of this too us. The woman was positive that my daughter's purple skirt was green. She had never been color blind. At the reception dinner her behavior was very erratic. She was loud and called the food "nasty" if she didn't like it. She was taking other people's drinks because she was positive they were her's and not there's. So they just kept bringing out more drinks.

She was never this way before the accident.

Her husband I vote for sainthood simply because he was so gentle and patient with her.

I am not sure what kind of bike the were riding, but they live in Florida. I saw a few riders with a helmet. Most that were wearing a helmet had no other protective gear on. I guess it's just the culture down there?

A classmate from high school was in a motor cycle accident with her then boyfriend. Neither were wearing helmets. He suffered a busted leg and broken arm. Her head was busted open and she now has a horseshoe sized scar running from between her eyes, up her forehead and into her scalp. It ends just in front of her left ear.

She tells me to be careful and always wear my helmet.

 

That is terrible. Makes you wonder why people won't wear protective gear. I would rather wear my gear and be hot then to not be hot and get hurt.

 

wow... I've seen some gnarly spills, and helmets truly do save lives (even if you live, quality of life). hell, check out Icon's website rideicon.com and there's a ton of testimonials about helmets. All the other gear helps, but it's the lid that means the difference between life normal and life screwed up.

 

i teach therapeutic horseback riding part-time - i teach people with physical and/or mental disabilities to ride horses as part of their therapy. i don't have any students in my classes with head-trauma/acquired brain injuries but there are some at our school. i hear what you saw. it's so challenging for both them and their families. does she realize what she's lost? those are the hardest cases :frown: i'm so sorry to hear that she's been through that. i hope that she can make some progress with therapy of whatever kind is best for her.

i had two concussions about ten years ago myself (judo, not motorcycling) and they were relatively mild on the scale of trauma, though i did lose consciousness both times. the good news is - it can get a little bit better. it takes a long time but it can improve. i will never mentally be where i was before, but i've adapted. i still have some difficulty with simple math, but i'm getting a LOT better with my left/right and east/west distinction. i know where i need to go, even if i don't say the correct word. :thumbsup: it's "funny" how you take that sort of ability for granted...

(ps - your left hand makes an "L" if you stick your thumb out)

 

I just took the Advanced Motorcycle Safety Program in Baton Rouge Louisiana, this morning. By 10am it was miserable hot. When we finished at noon it was 95 degrees. There I was wearing full gear and melting – the same gear I wear every time I ride. Later today I stopped by Blockbuster to pick up a movie for the kids tonight. A twenty-ish kid and his girlfriend were there with the really fancy $350 - $400 Icon helmets, t-shirts, shorts and tennis shoes. They jumped on a CBR 1000. All I could think was that neither of them have yet experienced hitting the pavement. When I got home I asked my wife if we were that goofy when she rode with me when we met 19 years ago. We didn’t wear armor, but we at least had on long pants and long sleeves. I will say that 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity reducing heat transfer makes it real tempting to leave the gear home. Guess I’d rather sweat.

 

When I went to Deals Gap last year we all pretty much wore all our gear. The only exception for me is that I was not wearing riding pants.

My friend's Dad went with us. He is retired and in his early 60's. He has been riding 2 wheels since he was 14. His comment to me that stuck was: "Sweat wipes off, road rash doesn't, if it's too hot for your gear it's too hot to ride." I try to live by that.

Recently I asked a woman that I have been dating to go with me and my friends to Lynchburg, TN. It's about 2 1/2 hours ride one way. She told me she just couldn't wear a jacket (it was about 95 degrees that day) so I went without her. I am sure she was upset. My thoughts are that if she wants to ride with a 1/2 helmet, shorts and a tank top, then she needs to ride her own bike or ride with someone else. I would not feel comfortable with her on the back of my bike dressed like that. Hard nosed? Maybe... but it's my bike!

 

"...Unfortunately, she isn't right mentally and it is uncertain if she ever will be... Her Dad was there and explaining all of this too us. The woman was positive that my daughter's purple skirt was green. She had never been color blind. At the reception dinner her behavior was very erratic. She was loud and called the food "nasty" if she didn't like it. She was taking other people's drinks because she was positive they were her's and not there's. So they just kept bringing out more drinks..."

I happen to be a hospital-based psychiatrist who frequently treats patients with various types of traumatic brain injury (TBI). At any rate, the behaviors you're describing are most consistent with injury to several brain regions, especially the frontal lobes (the right frontal lobe in particular), as well as the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes.

Injuries to the right frontal lobe often result in a type of 2ndary "bipolar" or manic-depressive sort of syndrome with signs and symptoms such as social inappropriateness; poor impulse control; mood lability; impaired memory and concentration; alterations in sleep-wake cycles; motor/speech impairments, etc. Comorbid injuries to other regions may result in a mix of overlapping signs/symptoms including visual and other 'perceptual' disturbances.

A long time ago, it was thought that the injured brain has little capacity to heal, regenerate, and 'rewire' itself following injury, be it due to stroke, trauma, etc. We now know better. In fact, there is a rapidly growing body of basic research studies, as well as clinical research studies which overwhelmingly indicate that many new-generation psychotropic medications have rather potent and highly beneficial neurotrophic, neuroregenerative, and neuroprotective properties. In other words, when administered shortly after the injury and for quite a while thereafter, these medications clearly appear to greatly facilitate the brain's ability to heal and 'rewire' by forming new synaptic connections, etc. Moreover, these medications also greatly help to reduce and sometimes even eliminate the behavioral symptoms of TBI mentioned above.

The most important class of medications in this area are the so-called 'Atypical Antipsychotics', also known as 'Second Generation Antipsychotics' (SGA's). Drugs within this class that are often especially helpful with optimizing clinical outcomes from TBI would include Seroquel (quetiapine); Geodon (ziprasidone); Risperdal (risperidone); and Abilify (aripiprazole).

Other medications may be equally helpful in this regard. Hopefully, the woman you've referred to here has been thoroughly evaluated by, and is being treated and closely followed by a skilled psychiatrist or neuropsychiatrist, in addition to many other members of a comprehensive multidisciplinary treatment team which has expertise in the assessment and management of TBI.

By the way, she would do well to not be offered access to, nor consume alcohol if possible, as you've discovered. Finally, I can't stress enough that she needs treatment, that excellent treatments are available, and that it would be best to not inadvertently humiliate or embarrass her by being shown any videos from the wedding in which she's obviously unwell, etc.

I hope I've been able to shed some light and compassion here. :smile:

 

At one point my daughter made a comment about drunk people (she's 14). I tried to explain to her that she was being rude and she just kept on talking. I finally told her to stop talking, to not talk at all, which she did. Later I told her about the woman's problem. She felt really bad about that.

The husband did in fact allow her to have a drink. I am pretty sure that no one else was drinking alcohol. They were just sodas, so she was just getting other's sodas.

Thank you for your insight RedRover. I felt for the woman. I know that she had a problem and wasn't just behaving badly for no reason. I just wish I had talked to my daughter before the dinner. She wasn't around when the woman's father was explaining it to my son and I.

 

Please stop this madness, we all know to wear our helmets, and if we don't, we are all old enough to understand the potential ramifications of this choice. If you choose to wear one, then good for you, if you don't, then good for you. At least you made your own personal decision concerning your personal choice.

I'm sick of all the accident, maiming, death threads, sick of all the squid, hate threads, sick of all the lecturing about safety. Mind your own goddamned business and do what you think is right for you.

Riding a motorcycle is about the RIDING, it isn't about the goddamned CRASHING. Stop with the damn crashing and safety police threads already. People crash, people get hurt, people die. The end.

I have been on this site for awhile now and the last 6 months have been nothing short of disgusting. Whatever happened to modifications, riding, hanging with your friends and enjoying motorcycling? I wish this place was the way it was when I first joined, all of the original gang is now gone and this place has become a shadow of it's former self and it has been taken over by something I can't even explain. For god sakes ladies and gents keep it on two wheels and have some fun, if you can't do that, piss on over to mylifesucks.com or OSHA.com or NTSA.com

 

response to the wanker...

NorCal, stop bein a pussy... :tsk:
We post this stuff because we care about each other... If you don't, feel free to STOP READING THE POSTS. Nobody forces you to click on the links, or to read the threads, or to respond when you have... you saw the title that said "yet another wear your helmet story" so why did you bother if you were gonna bitch?

Some of us care about the well-being of fellow riders, and we share our crash stories and death stories hoping to shed light on issues that new riders sometimes neglect. there are new folks joining the forum all the time, and if even ONE LIFE is saved because of one of these posts then I say PRAISE THE LORD that someone paid attention to the lesson, instead of jumpin' on your bitchwagon...

ride your own ride, and if ya don't like it then bounce...

 

Don't read the posts then.

When something traumatic happens around people, some individuals choose to talk about it with other people who can understand and relate to sort through those situations. Maybe they aren't directly involved in the accident, but if it triggers bad feelings, by all means spill your thoughts folks.

 

Maybe it's you? (J/K)

 

No Care Boy?

NorcalBoy,

Based on your recent diatribes, I just spent some time briefly reviewing your 'threads' history here at VFRW, and it appears that most of yours overwhelmingly involve little more than sending out your thoughtful 'Happy Birthday' wishes to other VFRW members. If you are in fact so nihilistic and seemingly unconcerned with most anyone's longevity or well-being other than your own, why your seeming preoccupation with birthday wishes? According to your apparent world view, I would've expected you to be far less sentimental and thoughtful.

Perhaps you should change your username to something like "No-care-boy" or "NocareBOY"? It's you... it's all about you, isn't it now?

 

i do belive in wear all my safty gear wether it be my 2piece leather ridding suit or my 2 pice texttile ridding suit and all wys a hellmet my dad bestoed that at a early age of 5 when he gave me my first bike a honda trail 70 whitch i ened up having a concusion with the helmet on because i hit the ground too hard but it could have been a lott worse if i hadnt had it on

 

While I don't agree with NorcalBoy's views, I do feel he has the right to express them. Just as I have the right to express mine.

Lighten up guys. :wink:

 

I suppose ur right... of course, it'd help if not ALL of his "views" were negative... check out his other posts, you'll see what we're gettin' at... I like to think the point of forums is constructive criticism, not naysaying and whining...

 

I've had 2 motorcycling road accidents and firmly believe a wearing helmet 100% saved me form major head / facial trauma both times. :thumbsup:

The first in '88 and the 2nd in '04 both times was wearing a full face helmet first was basically a Tbone flying lessen where I landed superman prone in a face plant but besides a short brown out and the helmets visor and chin guard ground down and the 2nd time was unexpectedly slapped down sidways by a mid corner oil spill which cracked the helmets shell around the temple area. Both times was thankfully fully kitted so and both times suffered fractured bones and deep bruising but saved me having skin grafts and facial reconstruction and or brain damage.

As NCB suggests people come people go on this site so so cannot see why a new a Helmet / gear thread shouldn't pop up promoting fresh discussion from time to time who knows it might even save someone newly arrived or help when they discuss gear merits with others.

 

I know you gonna say that you don't give a flying "F" what any one else thinks does or cares about so there you go......
no one is perfect............not even me.....

 

Is Rodney King available for comment?

 

I have to disagree with this. New riders join the ranks every day. We will have to repeat this message indefinitely.

From the followup posts to mine, I would say that the message is a good one.

:grouphug: