I apologize if this is slightly incoherent as it is currently 12:45 in the afternoon on Friday and I have been awake since 5 a.m. Thursday. I am in our hotel room and trying to type up something for you who have been following us.
Yesterday a.m. we headed out early to see how close to the Guatemalan border we could get or maybe even cross it. After only a few miles we were crossing a bridge when we suffered some very bad luck. The bridge surface was slippery and while slowing for stopped traffic Scott's bike slid out from underneath him. To tell you the truth it looked pretty bad. Scott slid under a stopped pickup truck and his bike lay on it's side with his plastic panniers broken, the seat dislodged and bent up. We jumped off our bikes and picked up the back of the pickup and rolled it forward off Scott.
He was unconscious for awhile and when he came to he was complaining of back pain. We called an ambulance which showed up remarkably quickly for us being in such a rural area. With myself riding inside the ambulance with him Scott was taken to a small hospital about thirty minutes away. They were great there and despite the limited ability to
communicate they took care of Scott the best they could.
After a time it was determined that Scott would be better served by a much larger hospital in Veracruz and an ambulance was
called. After paying the $300 bill, this included the ambulance ride, doctor's fee, and x-rays, they quickly loaded Scott in
an ambulance and proceeded to haul booty down the road passing everything in sight. I was the only one and who was able to
keep up and finally got a chance to pass the ambulance and motion to him to pull over. Using my pitiful Spanish I told him
that he needed to slow down to a max of 50 mph. This ended up being for the best as then Mike and Jim were able to catch up
and it also kept poor Scott from being bounced quite so badly.
The hospital in Veracruz is very conscientious fortunately as the language thing plays kind of huge when the pressure is on. I was able to make they understand me but I was poor at understanding them. I signed whatever they put in front of me to make sure Scott got what he needed, at one time saying "Yes, I was related".
Bottom line is that Scott is going to be OK! He has seven broken ribs and a slight punture in his left rib which they inserted a tube and are draining(I had to look at that!) His brother Steve is coming down tomorrow and by then Scott should be out of intensive care.
I've talked to Scott and he is trying to remain upbeat but he knows his trip is over. We have tried to make arrangements with the local BMW dealer to get bike trucked the 200 odd kilometers here so Steve can check it out and determine if it is worth messing with.
I will try and activate the SPOT GPS this afternoon before I fall asleep but first I want to visit Scott again at 5 p.m.His visiting hours are 11-11:30, 5-5:30, 11-11:30 p.m. also I would like to get some laundry done and a little bike
maintenance.
Best to all you wonderful readers-John
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hey John,
Man thats a bummer..I hope Scott's going to be ok..I guess Mike hitting a pop bottle in a turn in a parking lot is the second worse crash now lol
Hi to y'all..Since I met Scott and know him, all I can say is I wish him a speedy recovery> Glad to hear no punctured lungs or further complications. Do you guys know how can take care of him without abandoning him..Is there anything we can do up here in the states??chilmes
John, thank you for the update, and for staying with him. I'm sure Scott appreciates it! The last thing you want is for an accident to happen - especially on foreign soil, but it sounds like the medical teams have done a great job so far. Luckily it was not worse! I will pray that his recovery goes smoothly.
Thank you for the comments! They are appreciated!
Post a Comment