Caleb Escapes Death
I was working from home on Friday when I received a phone call from Caleb. "Renae, apparently I wrecked my motorcycle." I asked him where he was and what I needed to do, and his reply was, "Renae, apparently I wrecked my motorcycle." Then I asked him where he was and he had no idea. I heard someone talking in the background and I asked if I could speak to who he was with, and his reply was "Renae, apparently I wrecked my motorcycle." After about 20 of those responses I could hear the lady with Caleb saying she was taking him to St Vincent ER. That's all I needed to hear, I jumped in my car, just in time to sit in traffic. I wanted to get to the ER as fast as I could but Memorial weekend vacationers felt otherwise.
By the time I got to the hospital Caleb was all checked in and had his room. His memory was about 10 seconds for the first hour and I proceeded to answer the same questions over, and over. "Renae, how long have you been here? Where am I? I just had a dream that I crashed my motorcycle. I'm sorry Renae." I had to tell him every time what happened and where he was.
We went in for a CT Scan of his entire upper body from the hips up. After that we just waited in the room and I continued to answer all of his questions over and over. After about three hours he could remember up to 3 minutes. Finally we got the test results and the doctor and radiologist were amazed. Caleb had no internal injuries. They inspected his safety gear over and over and just could not make sense of why he wasn't being taken away to surgery. They said he must have an angel watching over him and he should count his blessings.
We left the hospital a little bit later with some bandages for road rash and Caleb walked out to the car without a wheelchair. By the time we left he could remember almost 20 minutes and we were improving. We went back to the scene later that night and the next morning to pull out the bike and see where he crashed.
Lucky for him, a lady who lived nearby heard him crash. She jumped in her car and went looking for him. She passed him the first time and couldn't see him so she circled back and caught site of him. She parked her car, got out, and Caleb was still knocked out on his bike. After she helped him off his bike that he was pinned to, he tried to convince her that he could ride out of there. She called 911 but they said it would be at least 10 minutes before they could send anyone. She decided to drive Caleb herself to the ER. She is a wonderful person and I hope that we would all do the same thing if we heard a crash. Here are pictures of what went down.
Caleb was heading toward where I was standing with the camera. The corner farthest from the camera was where he went down. He slid about 70 feet:
After he slid the 70 feet he hit the sign first and then the light post:
This is where his bike ended up:
This is Shelby's look of disappointment and what's left of the bike:
Caleb was wearing a spine protector, elbow and shoulder pads, steel gloves, riding boots that are reinforced and go up to his knees and this helmet:
Caleb Vernon Coombs, why did he wreck on this road?
By the time I got to the hospital Caleb was all checked in and had his room. His memory was about 10 seconds for the first hour and I proceeded to answer the same questions over, and over. "Renae, how long have you been here? Where am I? I just had a dream that I crashed my motorcycle. I'm sorry Renae." I had to tell him every time what happened and where he was.
We went in for a CT Scan of his entire upper body from the hips up. After that we just waited in the room and I continued to answer all of his questions over and over. After about three hours he could remember up to 3 minutes. Finally we got the test results and the doctor and radiologist were amazed. Caleb had no internal injuries. They inspected his safety gear over and over and just could not make sense of why he wasn't being taken away to surgery. They said he must have an angel watching over him and he should count his blessings.
We left the hospital a little bit later with some bandages for road rash and Caleb walked out to the car without a wheelchair. By the time we left he could remember almost 20 minutes and we were improving. We went back to the scene later that night and the next morning to pull out the bike and see where he crashed.
Lucky for him, a lady who lived nearby heard him crash. She jumped in her car and went looking for him. She passed him the first time and couldn't see him so she circled back and caught site of him. She parked her car, got out, and Caleb was still knocked out on his bike. After she helped him off his bike that he was pinned to, he tried to convince her that he could ride out of there. She called 911 but they said it would be at least 10 minutes before they could send anyone. She decided to drive Caleb herself to the ER. She is a wonderful person and I hope that we would all do the same thing if we heard a crash. Here are pictures of what went down.
Caleb was heading toward where I was standing with the camera. The corner farthest from the camera was where he went down. He slid about 70 feet:
After he slid the 70 feet he hit the sign first and then the light post:
This is where his bike ended up:
This is Shelby's look of disappointment and what's left of the bike:
Caleb was wearing a spine protector, elbow and shoulder pads, steel gloves, riding boots that are reinforced and go up to his knees and this helmet:
Caleb Vernon Coombs, why did he wreck on this road?
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