ruckman
05-28-2007, 11:35 PM
my husband, jim, has been riding for a long time. he has had so many injuries in the past. many we have dealt with on our own through the help with medi-cal or insurance...
of course we are at a point in our lives where we don't qualify for medi-cal and my husband is self-employed, so he has no medical insurance...go figure, he gets hurt during all this.
jim, our 18 year old son and jim's best friend decide it is a nice day to go down to the river bed in our area to ride for awhile. i stayed home with our other three children this time, we usually all go and ride, bit this time i stayed back.
after afew hours of good riding and about 6 miles from the truck, back on some trails, jim and his friend paul see a little jump and they do it over and over again. "one more time, then lets call it a night" jim told paul...at that very moment jim lands his bike and the front end comes up and whaps him under his helmet on the chin...instantly he falls down...he cant breathe, blood is spouting out all over the place and jims thinking what the hell happened, i didnt even crash!!! jim is starting to freak out and panic...i cant breathe ...why??? paul took some EMT classes that summer before and he instantly knew what to do...grab a sharp stick and poke jim in the throat so he can breathe...but first he grabbed jim's jaw and pulled it foreword...instantly jiim took a deep breath, he could breathe now...now what??? jim's bleeding and they are 6 miles form the truck and miles from the hospital??? jim put his helment back on, and rode with one hand on the chin to hold it up and the other on the handle...it was the WORST ride he ever had at that moment!
he mad it back and our 18 year old son drove his dad to the hospital, he held tough through all that, it was traumatizing to see, much less have his own young son see that.
once at the hospital, five long hours later he was in the operating room....hours later he had a steel plate and screws put in the chin to put it back in place and he had his mouth wired shut for 6 weeks....jim lost 20 lbs, in the first week...milk shakes only....he went through mental and physical hell during those weeks let me tell you. well, so did his family...we all went through hell those weeks.
tomorrow jim gets those wires off, finally...jim is sooo happy!
sadly we are now faced with a 50,000.00 medical bill that we have to pay and have no way to pay it. i hope they will take 50.00 a month for life, cause thats all we can do right now. anyways, i am sure you have all heard this before, so i will spare you the 'feel sorry for me" bit...just, thank you for listening to our story.
take care all and God speed to all who are hurt too.
sincerely, michelle ruckman
of course we are at a point in our lives where we don't qualify for medi-cal and my husband is self-employed, so he has no medical insurance...go figure, he gets hurt during all this.
jim, our 18 year old son and jim's best friend decide it is a nice day to go down to the river bed in our area to ride for awhile. i stayed home with our other three children this time, we usually all go and ride, bit this time i stayed back.
after afew hours of good riding and about 6 miles from the truck, back on some trails, jim and his friend paul see a little jump and they do it over and over again. "one more time, then lets call it a night" jim told paul...at that very moment jim lands his bike and the front end comes up and whaps him under his helmet on the chin...instantly he falls down...he cant breathe, blood is spouting out all over the place and jims thinking what the hell happened, i didnt even crash!!! jim is starting to freak out and panic...i cant breathe ...why??? paul took some EMT classes that summer before and he instantly knew what to do...grab a sharp stick and poke jim in the throat so he can breathe...but first he grabbed jim's jaw and pulled it foreword...instantly jiim took a deep breath, he could breathe now...now what??? jim's bleeding and they are 6 miles form the truck and miles from the hospital??? jim put his helment back on, and rode with one hand on the chin to hold it up and the other on the handle...it was the WORST ride he ever had at that moment!
he mad it back and our 18 year old son drove his dad to the hospital, he held tough through all that, it was traumatizing to see, much less have his own young son see that.
once at the hospital, five long hours later he was in the operating room....hours later he had a steel plate and screws put in the chin to put it back in place and he had his mouth wired shut for 6 weeks....jim lost 20 lbs, in the first week...milk shakes only....he went through mental and physical hell during those weeks let me tell you. well, so did his family...we all went through hell those weeks.
tomorrow jim gets those wires off, finally...jim is sooo happy!
sadly we are now faced with a 50,000.00 medical bill that we have to pay and have no way to pay it. i hope they will take 50.00 a month for life, cause thats all we can do right now. anyways, i am sure you have all heard this before, so i will spare you the 'feel sorry for me" bit...just, thank you for listening to our story.
take care all and God speed to all who are hurt too.
sincerely, michelle ruckman