Bike came from nowhere - left me with a fork in my head!

**Oakie** · 20th March 2007, 20:02

Damned fool on his sports bike came out of nowhere and slammed into the front of us in the car. I was eating my Chinese takeaways at the time and had just lifted the fork with steaming hot noodles from the container when the impact occured. The sudden stop drove the fork into my forehead where it stayed leaving me looking like a unicorn. Noodles splattered out and burnt my leg as well as the neck of the person in front of me. She also recieved other burns from God knows where. The driver of the car was left slumped over the steering wheel not breathing. Another passenger had an open break to the arm and the dummy beside me died. Motorcyclist was pinned under his bike and suffered burns from his exhaust.
A horrendous scene but thank God it wasn't real. It was a scenario I was acting in at the 2 day First Aid course I attended last week. Good to get my certificate current again and great to find that the theory of CPR has continued to evolve and is really easy to do now. Don't even have to look for a pulse any more.
As part of the course we were shown how to remove a helmet from an injured rider which was great. It's one thing to read about how to do it but it is a complete different thing to actually see it done. The only thing that gave me the willys a bit was that the helmet they used was exactly the same as mine. Sort of gave me the feeling of watching it happen to me while I hovered above. Yucky!
I passed the course and fervently hope that I never have to use any of the life saving techniques, however, I have done CPR for real in the past and I know that should the worst happen, I won't be a useless spectator.

**MotoGirl** · 20th March 2007, 20:06

It's great to see you being proactive in the safety arena! I did first aid 10 years ago, but am stuffed if I could remember it now...

**kneescraper** · 20th March 2007, 20:08

Gezzz...I was feeling a little sick there for a min..

**Macktheknife** · 20th March 2007, 20:10

Thank god, you had me worried for a second there.
Good onya for doing the course, and here's hoping you never need to use it again.

**T-Thunder13** · 20th March 2007, 20:11

wow. how do you take a helmet off an injured rider?

**sunhuntin** · 20th March 2007, 20:20

hell, had me wondering how a bike could cause so much damage. the image of the forked unicorn was amusing though.

**eviltwin** · 20th March 2007, 20:40

you're bloody lucky that wasn't real mate, chinese food has dangerous levels of msg.

on another note: last year i went hangliding in queenstown. a foreign girl in our group had been on the piss the night before and when she landed she spewed noodles out of her nostrils and mouth, i had to help her by pulling gently on the nostril noodles to clear her airway. She was a very attractive girl...up until that moment of course!

**Meanie** · 20th March 2007, 20:42

You had me going for a second i was thinking you poor bugger and the dummy beside you dead Shit it must have been a huge monster of a bike
Thank god you were only acting, imagine the paper work on those acc reports

**Nasty** · 20th March 2007, 20:47

Bloody hell ... not only had me going .. but I was real concerned about all the death and mayhem of the story

**Big Dog** · 20th March 2007, 21:08

Originally Posted by T-Thunder13

wow. how do you take a helmet off an injured rider?

Unless they are not breathing you don't.
If they are not breathing VERY CAREFULLY.
If they are breathing as a general rule the more they want it off the worse an idea it is to take it off before the arrival of a professional.

**MidnightMike** · 20th March 2007, 21:14

Must have been a goldwing, they could take on a cage and come of better.

**Ixion** · 20th March 2007, 21:25

Originally Posted by Big Dog

Unless they are not breathing you don't.
If they are not breathing VERY CAREFULLY.
If they are breathing as a general rule the more they want it off the worse an idea it is to take it off before the arrival of a professional.

The previously received wisdom was that if the rider was not breathing the helmet must be removed to enable mouth to mouth, in association with the chest compression thing. But I see the latest research says that one should forget the mouth to mouth altogether , and just concentrate on the chest pumping. In which case there is no need to remove the helmet ?

Perhaps one of the zambucky members would care to comment? I'm not sure whether the "don't bother with mouth to mouth" is applicable to smashed up bikers, the references were to cardiac arrest cases.