Perfect start then a detour

The start of his race was awesome. His dad was racing in the same race with him. They both went around the first corner and a got pics of his dad jumping and the dust was so bad I put my camera down to find my D. As the dust cleared I saw him coming off a the first jumps. I knew something was wrong. His bike landed nose first and the jumped. He flew off front forward and his legs whipped over his head as he landed. Or that's the way I remember it. By then I was screaming and heading that way. He tried to get up and everyone was like stay down but he knew enough that other bikes were coming over the hill at him. He tried to get up and had this dead dazed look on his face. I yelled for him to get down. The EMT's on the scene weren't moving fast enough for me so I took over making him lay down, not move and started talking to him. His mouth was bleeding a little bit from him braces. He said he couldn't breathe. By then his step mom was yelling just to transport him out. I'm glad she did cause I couldn't think that far ahead. They stopped the race and his dad looked around and couldn't find him so headed back to the wreck that had stopped the race and saw us on the ground. His dad and I both ran squad and that just kicked in. He was trying to get bikes loaded and get all his gear together so I stayed with him. I started holding c-spine and his dad checked his arms and legs for feeling. I put the c-collar on him and helped put him on the back board. I yelled for G to get my camera and start packing things up. We headed back to the life squad at the scene and had to wait for a transport squad. Other medics showed up and started vitals and I did a pelvic check and felt his back for deformities. After a while he just complained of a road rash feel on his back and a bloody elbow. We then started our way to the hospital. As long as I was busy I was fine but when I stopped I would see the wreck over and over again. The girls in the squad took pictures and he called them evil for going along with my plan to take pictures of him in his time of need..ha ha.. He felt good enough to give a thumbs up. And let me say, while he was rolling around on the ground he wanted to get up and finish the race. We had to do a lot of talking to keep him down.

This is maybe why his back hurt.. he kind of landed on it. One kid said the bike landed on him but I don't remember that.
You can kind of see the impression from his Leatt Brace up around his shoulders. It keeps his head from whipping back. He had a ring around his shoulders and neck from it hitting so hard.
He does remember hitting the handle bars with his stomach.
And the one chief complaint.. the bloody elbow. After these pics thing sunk in and they wanted his shirt off for Xrays and a CAT scan. He then turned really pale and wanted/tried to get sick. They wheeled him off and the minute he was back in the room up came his red Gatorade..nice. He felt a lot better after that.

The CAT scan and Xray showed no broken bones, no bleeding in his skull. He had a bad bad concussion. He was released and is home in bed. As the day went on his face swelled a little more and started to turn purplish/red. I think he is going to have one or two black eyes in the morning. He had a place on his nose where the goggles hit pretty hard.

He was wearing a Leatt brace for his neck and that saved him real from serious injury. It is designed to keep his head from slapping forward or backward to hard and causing a broken neck. They are expensive but today proved that it was well worth it. After inspecting his helmet that is now broken. He is going to need a new one and maybe a new Leatt brace.

The race season is over in two weeks so we will have to wait til next year to try this again.. well not this..but racing. Thanks to all the were concerned from my twitter updates. I was very shaky at the time.

~Cathy