Welsh Ambulance Ride (thing)

[BenS]

Please excuse the poetic licence above - this was not on the WRT.

I've recently managed to wangle Fridays off whilst the kids are in nursery to do me stuff. It had been a tiring week and I decided to have a quick blast around Glyncorrwg trail centre (by myself) before finishing off some DIY tasks at home. Anyhow I managed to fall off on one of the easier bits of trail (unsure how - suspect I may have had a slight sleepy moment on the bike or at least was distracted looking around at the old pine woods with amazing emerald green moss on it). When I picked myself up I looked down and realised that I could see my kneecap and it was bleeding more than I wanted it to. I sat down at the side of the trail and applied pressure with my hand which stopped the bleeding.

I had 1 bar of mobile reception so decided that phoning for help was the best course of action since I was concerned that moving might make things bleed again and I wasn't confident I could get down to where the car was parked. I have what3words on my phone so made sure that I memorised that before making the 999 call. At this point phone decided that it didn't have enough signal so the call piggybacked on another network thankfully although this meant that the police/ambulance/MR team would not be able to phone me back.

I put on my spare clothes / waterproof and wrapped a spaceblanket poncho over my legs. This kept me just about warm enough.

After 25 minutes 2 people came past and stopped. They gave me an additional space blanket but I asked them to go relay my exact position to the centre at the car park thinking that the police would contact there (they didn't). After 5 minutes one of them reappeared and said that he would stay with me whilst his mate went down to the centre at the car park.

I think it was about 1h40 minutes after I made the 999 call the bloke who had stayed with me decided to have a walk up the trail and found a police officer and was able to guide them to me. Turns out that what3words wasn't very accurate. Paramedics were able to clean and dress wound and assist me to hobble 1/2 mile to ambulance. Western Beacons MR team were stood by in case I needed more assistance.

Ambulance got a little lost on windfarm roads and it took 90 minutes to get back to Glyncorrwg rather than the 10 minutes it had taken them on the way out. I was able to lock bike in car and ambulance service put me in a taxi (to Swansea rather than Cardiff). I had wound cleaned in MIU and then admitted for surgery the next day to asses wound, debride and close. Everyone in the NHS has been absolutely brilliant.

Accident was 28th Aug. I've had stitches out and no longer need to wear knee brace 10th Sept. Knee is still very swollen and whilst I can bend it to 45 degrees if I really force it walking still is with a leg that doesn't bend.

So what have I learnt?
- Sometimes you have to prioritise a bit of sleep!
- My first aid kit was pretty useless (if you can even call it that it's very minimal). I've added one of these and a triangular bandage. I may have been able to walk to a more convenient location or stem bleeding had it been more serious.
- What3words was a little bit of a letdown, i think because of wet foliage cover. I should have taken a grid ref from my bike computer as well
- When the other 2 mountain bikers found me and one went to the trail centre I should have phoned 999 to give them an update and to let them know to go there to get better description of where I was (think I was sure W3W was accurate at that point)
- The weather was very clement. I need to take more warm clothes just in case or possible a blizzard blanket which I've used before and are much warmer than a standard space blanket
- Not sure what I would have done with no phone signal. Probably stemmed the bleeding then started walking. It surprised me how quiet it was there
- I've since invested in an InReach. This would have enabled me to contact my wife straight away rather than the police doing so and probably saved here some worry in addition to the obvious SOS coverage

[redefined_cycles]

Glad you're ok Ben and thanks for the writeup. Good 'naseeha' (an arabic term which is used by the islamic scholars and translates I believe the 'best advice')*

Its certainly reminded me to ensure I upgrade my emergency kit a little and certainly will invest in that bandage you linked to. Doubt I could afford the InReach investment longer-term but I think Asposium mentioned summat about the Manx sim being the best for reception so at some point I'll buy a spare little phone with that sim for longer-ride duties...

Glad you still had the scruples to make what it seems the right decision and well done/thanks to everyone that assisted along the way. Happened once to me and a mate...

We got to the top of Wessenden Head and cos we were with a chap who liked DH and not up, on this occassion we'd agreed to ride to the top and do the 'weeee' roller-voaster type ride back down to Marsden at the bottom. The other 2 chaps were way behind me and my mate Kris, but they were better at DH I suppose.

Once they (the DHers) reached Wessy we all started racing DH (like idiots). I'd forgotten I was still in the 'granny' so looked down briefly - don't ask why - at my gears whilst I made em bigger/faster. Looked up and there was a massive ditch in the track and the split second told me I need to try and jump it. Now, I don't know how to bunny hop and only ever managed to get 'air' for about a week after a tuition course.

Hence as I was thinking I was getting air, I actually shimmied the front wheel ibto the ditch and straight into the back of Kris who I imagine must have been in a similar predicsment of the ditch coming up suddenly. His bike landed about a good 7 car lengths off the track and I can't remember where mine did. Felt like we had internally bleeding knees (well I did) and hobbled back home via the road after 45 minutes of waiting for the lads to realise we hadn't followed behind...

Won't tell you what happened next as it was a bit of a quietly heated exchange when we all finally caught up as we were made to feel like we'd slowed/let them (add nice word here) down! Anyway, just thought to share as your mishap reminded me of it

*Dont mean to add such terms but on occasion they're the best I have ... Dont mean to be irritating either

[TheBrownDog]

His bike landed about a good 7 car lengths off the track

Shaf, fella, I love your posts. I've never measured anything in car lengths, but, you know what, it bloody works.

I'm not gonna share my worst injury story because it's way worse than anyone else ....

[redefined_cycles]

His bike landed about a good 7 car lengths off the track

Shaf, fella, I love your posts. I've never measured anything in car lengths, but, you know what, it bloody works.

I'm not gonna share my worst injury story because it's way worse than anyone else ....

Lol... I love a bit of feedback. Maybe one I'll write a book regards 'car lengths' I had to look around me to figure out how far his bike actually landed. Kris was a roadie/copper btw and on another occasion (the day he brought his posh new Haglofs jacket to Wessy on the mtb's. I never understood what exactly he'd brought and why he was super-chuffed...

That day he ended up with hypothermia and the shop just entering Meltham loaned us some plastic bags and made a cuppa to warm/liven him up* before the taxi home

*Thankfully it was him as I was just bordering on it myself. Same spot (top of Wessy Head) is where we made the stupid decision of removing gloves just before it started hailing (in summer)... You lesrn rather alot from these near death experiences I suppose