Wow, great thread! I related to many points here as I was unprepared but became the calming responder in my friend's near-death head-on motorcycle accident deep in the mountains of Colorado. It still gives me shivers and raises my heartrate as I recall details and type this.
For me, the initial shock of disbelief and shouting in my helmet "NO NO NO! That didn't just happen?! NO!" Then reconciling, "Yes it did", as I'm seeing the aftermath of debris settle on the road was a moment I will never forget. The first hardest thing for me wasn't dodging the debris and getting my bike stopped, it was simply being composed enough to remember to put down my bike's sidestand--I was confused and in a rush, the adrenaline having my muscles shaky for action. That first 20 seconds was the challenge for me as I wanted so quickly to get to him, wasn't thinking clearly, but had to pause for a very brief moment and tell myself "it's ok that the vacation is now over", and "you can do this". I decided right then to remain calm, composed, and situational aware, and I took action. His first words to me when I got to him were "I'm sorry John [for upending our vacation], and tell my wife I love her". It was difficult to stay composed at that moment. [Stay composed John, assess, watch for cars coming at us, ... ...]
So many good points in the above, but the one that saved my friend's life was the femural artery point above. He was bleeding fast (his leg was severed) and he had many other internal and flesh wounds.
The other responders slowly trickled in, and were preoccupied with moving little bits of debris off the road...they would not approach me or my injured friend, and were just walking around not sure what to do. I was yelling 'call 911'! Initially, no one had done so! It was minutes later that it became clear we had no cell coverage. Long story short, after getting people posted around the corners of the road, slowing traffic, and after getting a couple people to even approach me and my friend (I demanded that they come over and showed them his femural artery), I got on my bike and rode off to find cell coverage. I knew the risks were high for me at that point, but the 911 call had to get in. It took me 20 minutes to find a landline at a ranger station (still no cell coverage). A SPOT sure would have been nice!
The ambulance was over 40 min away. Lifeflight was in eastern Colorado and also over an hour away (turned into two hours). Once I got back to the scene, fortunately an off-duty KS patrolman and ER nurse, both on vacation, had come upon the scene and had taken over. I decided that my job now was to continue talking to my friend about his family, interests, grandkids, and other things that were good memories and 'reasons to live'. Although there were moments where I thought I had seen him pass, he did live, thank God!
I can also attest to the exhaustion, confusion, and worry that sets in afterwards--and the pesky patrol detaining me for a report. After over 4 hours (!!), I was able to leave the scene and I rode back to the town which my friend [eventually] got airlifted to, right at dusk, and it was a challenge. That challenge was especially poignant when 2 forest rats darted out in front of me--there wasn't much adrenaline/energy left and it was simply good fortune that I didn't hit either one. :hyp1:
Sorry, not meant to hijack the thread, but rather just illustrate how difficult a situation is, and to reinforce how useful the recommendations are in the above posts.
:bow1:
Thanks!
