UPDATE: Donate to the injured cyclist’s fund!

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He’s legit…

My friend Erin and I jogged up to the San Diego Velodrome on Tuesday to watch her cyclist boyfriend race with everyone else’s cyclist boyfriends. In lap 24 of a 25-lap race, one cyclist (in the picture) hit the upper wall, did some kind of flip off his bike (I’m not quite clear on all the details), hit the boards with his head and rolled down the inclined race path to lie motionless at the bottom.

The Velodrome is not a big venue, and we were two of perhaps a hundred witnesses including spectators, organizers and racers. He didn’t move for several minutes as people started swarming around him. His daughter, maybe 7 or 8 years old, had been watching the race from the enter of the track, and she had been yelling, “Go, Daddy, GO!” each time he circled. Someone wrapped her in a blanket while they worked to stabilize her father’s head.

After a few minutes, it was clear that he was awake. When the ambulance arrived, he was conscious enough to hold his own arms across his chest as they strapped him to the stabilization board.

The next day Erin sent a link to a blog with an update. The damage: a concussion, a blood clot behind the left eye, a thumb that was almost completely ripped off that they were able to reattach, a broken rib, a fractured knee… I read something somewhere about cracked vertebrae, but I didn’t see it in the latest update.

All of this, this damage, this life-changing crash, happened in perhaps 6 seconds. A wheel wobbled, a wall appeared, a head hit a board, a bikeless rider rolled down a hill.

Of course, none of us have any way of protecting ourselves from circumstances like these. This man has probably ridden dozens, maybe hundreds of races on that same track. The triathlete who was killed by a shark off Solana Beach a couple of weeks ago was swimming with 9 other triathletes. The shark chose him. This cyclist’s bike hit the wall. You just never know.

As a small business owner, single woman and overall independent breadwinner, I really do fret about a catastrophic health problem. Working with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, I’ve heard stories about normal people with a headache who end up with a life-threatening disease. My mom’s voice started sounding strained, and she turned out to have thyroid cancer. Just like that. I’m not saying I obsess about getting in a car accident or anything, but I realize that I’m going to have a lot more than my health to deal with if something goes wrong.

How do you prepare? When I don’t work, I don’t make money. Period. If I’m in the hospital, I will have absolutely no income. Sure, I have health insurance with a $5k deductible, but hell– I don’t have the deductible in the bank.

Coincidentally, this week I had my annual (well they would be annual if I did them every once in a while) blood tests, and the doctor said my numbers all were amazingly perfect. Things couldn’t be better with my cholesterol, thyroid levels, liver function and all the rest. How lucky am I?

Today I am lucky. And Monday this biker may have been lucky. And Tuesday he was unlucky. And things will be tough for him and his family for the next little bit.

I’ll post an update to this post when they establish the donation fund for the biker. Please consider giving a few bucks to help out. I certainly am.

For now, here’s a blog with the latest updates.