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after reading about Andy's off and his avowed intent to avoid getting into an ambulance - even if you have a low speed off - go and get checked in hospital

again for those who are of the hard of understanding


GO TO HOSPITAL

MOST PEOPLE CAN TELL IF THEY HAVE BROKEN A BONE - BUT THEY CANNOT TELL ABOUT THE INTERNAL INJURIES

in this instance andy was lucky - broken ribs could have perforated a lung - he would have felt fine for a period of time - then a nice haemo or pnuemo thorax would have dropped his breathing very quickly

other common injuries after even a low speed off are kidney damage, or spleen damage - not necessarily life threatening at the time, but will be/could be in a few hours

case in point - friend had an off on thursday - came home and asked me to check him over. I did, and was happy that he had no major injuries, but I insisted that he went to be checked over

he kept putting things off.... i started ringing him every 10 minutes till he went to A and E - as he said later, he went because I was nagging him and he was getting pissed off

at A and E he was told that he was fine - but when he told the triage nurse that I had nagged him to go, he was told about the biker who died a couple of weeks ago following a 40 mph off - his spleen ruptured and he was bleeding out into his gut - he apparently told the paramedics that he was too much of a man to get checked over at the hospital

There are many fools in grave yards!

so, I very rarely give medical advice, for obvious reasons re litigation - but thats one for all - GO GET A CHECK UP IF YOU HAVE AN OFF

/rant over

Can't argue with that Pete ..... lessons learned and all that.

TBO I don't trust the NHS, why should I trust them to get anything like a simple "off" properly?

About 15 years ago i knew somebody who got knocked of his bike, car pulled out in front of him.He got up and appeared fine 20 minutes later he collapsed and died, internal injuries

TBH pete, its like this - trust them or not - if there is something wrong they may find it - if you don't go and there is something wrong, it may well be the coroner that finds it....

Yeah - At the time I thought I was all right - felt like muscular / ligament / bruising stuff and it would settle down in a week.

Paramedics checked my spine etc and couldn't find any real issues - said I could go if I chose to but recommended I went to A&E.
Now knowing that you always wait for 3 or 4 hrs to be seen at our A&E I was sorely tempted to leave it but I took their advice. Very glad I did.

Before I got to hospital, things hurt a LOT more - the adrenalin had done it's stuff and had flushed through (or whatever it does - I'm sure Pete will correct me if I've got this wrong)

I think that's a lot of it though - at the time of the incident and for a while afterwards you are running on adrenalin and are in no position to evaluate your own condition. Best that the experts do it for you.

Good advice also evidenced by the death of actress Natasha Redgrave after a slight knock to the head in a very minor ski-ing accident - she was alughing about it a few minutes after, and dead the next day!


Quite apart from the health aspect, it's also a good way to make sure the accident gets a police report if there are insurance issues.