Bicycle frontal accident - head on collision with a car
Im Swedish but I live in Asia (Hong Kong) since more than 4 years now. Hong Kong is not a bicycle friendly area, like everyone can imagine, but on the south side of the island you can bike very well on car empty streets early mornings. Just this morning I was unlucky… I had biked for 2 hours and was aiming to bike another hour when a car suddenly drove into my lane as I was coming downhill. I crashed frontal with the car and was thrown into the cars window windscreen. Next I remember was about 4-5 hours later, I was in the emergency at the hospital. Nurses and doctors around me were all working on me like they didnt know if this person (me) was going to survive or not. Someone was cutting my bike tricot off my body with a scissors, someone was strapping all my necklaces and rings off, one was pumping my chest, someone was staring in my eyes with a lamp, someone was stiching the open wounds on my hands and on my back, someone was holding my iPhone in my face telling me to pick a person to call. The worse what I remembered is when the doctor just all of a sudden punctured the skin on the side under my arm and inserted a chest string drainage. That hurt! I could feel that even though I was full of morphine and painkillers. Next day X-rays on my head, on my overbody. Result of injuries caused: Collapsed left lung (Pneumothorax), open wounds on my hands and back (laceration of skin), several rib fractures, clavicle fracture, fractures of facial bones (zygomatic, maxilla and malar bones). After some days in the hospital I slowly woke up and had to remain in the hospital for 14 days until the swelling on my face had been reduced. After 14 days I had my first surgery, the maxilla facial reconstructive surgery. The eye socket had a fracture but it was untouched during the surgery hoping it will heal it self. I had to shave off a part of my hair where they needed to operate. The lady doctor made the second insertion of the surgery on my eyebrow, it looks like I have a longer eyebrow now. They put 2 plates in my face, one at the left eyes side where the bone was cracked and one plate on top of the lip where the maxilla facial top lip bone had been cracked. The crack on the orbit floor and the crack on the bones directly under my left eye was untouched. My left cheekbone had been squeezed in so they did the best they could to push back the facial bones trying to have the cheek bone come out as much as the right cheekbone. They managed about 75% to fulfil this. I had a jaw surgery and I’m now wearing braces. As I woke up from the surgery I had two new scars in my face (one on the head where my hair was shaved and the other one on the left eyebrow) where they did the maxillar facial surgery. Day by day my face turned more and more blue again and the swelling came back. Eventually after 4 weeks in the hospital I could finally come home. The fifth week I had to go back to the hospital to have a surgery to my clavicle. As I’m a keen swimmer I need my arms movement to come back to 100%, so surgery was necessary. The broken ribs were left to heal by them selves. The chest drain they removed after the 4th week and my lungs had been recovered to 99%. Good news! At home I started going to the gym every morning to bike on the indoor bike, this to strengthen my lungs through some easy cardio training. I’m still worried though, I cant open my mouth more than half an inch and I have no feeling or sensation on my left lip and cheek. It might be to early to tell as Im only struggling with week 5 right now. I have decided to give my self 3 months of time to heal, then I will have something to say, so lets see. My only wish is to have my facial nerves to come back to normal again and to be able to open my mouth as before and at last to taste and smell again. Most important of all… I’m so thankful that I survived and that I will probably more or less recover one day. The French bike rider who had the same kind of accident like me only 3 weeks later did not make it. He died of his injuries, he was only 29 years old. I’m dedicating my time and thoughts to him and his family. RIP Hugo, Outdoor sport is our passion.
