Life Happens

It was suppose to be a hardcore weekend of sailing at this years VRC summer regatta but on Friday night fate had other plans.

I had just gotten home from dinner with Curt-ASS when I got the call that my brother had been in a motorcycle accident and was being airlifted to Royal Columbia Hospital. We hopped in the car and took off to New West. When we got there they ushered us into the "bad news" room away from the other emergency waiting area.

We got there before the helicopter and we sat there waiting. I knew very little about his condition other than they were trying to stabilize him and he had a serious head injury as Cheryl and I waited there. We had heard from his distraught wife that he had been working on his dirt bike and taken it out for a ride around the block to see if it was running well. Of course he hadn't worn his helmet and no sooner did he get around the corner than he was clipped by car that left the seen. Let's face it they don't give you a helicopter ride to the Trauma Centre for BC if your doing well.

Nothing could have prepared me for when they brought him in. 5 tubes were jammed down his throat and his face was covered in blood, and one eye was so swollen black it looked unbelievable. All his visible body was covered in road rash and there was a ton of expensive kit plugged into him.

We were held back as they worked on him. As they worked on him they were prepping him for a head CT scan so they invited us in to take a look. No one else had arrived and as my parents were out of cell range camping it was just Cheryl and I. He was a mess. Hands and feet discoloured. Machines pumping fluid into him and others sucking it out. Pretty rough stuff. Cheryl looked at me and said the machines were breathing for him. The nurse came by and handed me his wedding ring because he was going in for the emergency CT.

I pulled it out of the little paper envelope. This is when I lost it. It was bent and scratched up and covered in blood. The last time I had held it was at his wedding when I was his best man. I really thought I could be the last one to see him alive.

The next two days were a blurr but in slow motion if that makes any sense. Sleeping in hospital chairs, getting brief updates. Trying to get a hold of parents. By Sunday good news had come in and he was improving dramatically. Just a skull with lots of fractures and he should be okay.

I would like to Thank Curt-ASS for letting the crew know that we couldn't be there with such short notice. I know you all cancelled plans to do the race. Also I would like to thank Fatty and his girl for taking care of Kingsley the Terrible Terrier.

Thanks,

T.