Whiskey Throttle

It all started a few days ago, on Tuesday I think it was. The last few days have been a blur. My brother's high school friend and his wife were down for a few days. They actually have a motorhome parked at our place and sometimes spend months at a time here.

He and my brother had dirt bikes when they were in school, though Paul hadn't ridden anything but street bikes since. They were scheduled to leave on Monday, but decided to stay an extra day. That would turn out to be a disastrous decision.

The lure of the dirt bike was too much to ignore and Paul couldn't help himself...he had to ride one of them. He started out well, going out on the motocross track, did a lap or two and came back in. His wife wanted to take a few snaps of him in the yard so he went around the house and wheelied across the yard. He took a second lap and this time when he came around he lost control and went full on whiskey throttle.

For those of you who don't know, a whiskey throttle is a complete and utter loss of control of the bike. Because the throttle rolls back toward your body, and you're holding on for dear life it is near impossible to correct.

Your body is far off balance to the rear of the bike and you're flying along like superman, just maintaining contact with the hand grips. The rational thing to do is to let go and fling yourself free, but the fight or flight instinct tells you to tighten your grip. It happens so fast that you just don't have time to react.

And so it happened, with Paul coming in like a shooting star...straight into the back of a Honda side by side. He flipped backwards and wound up on the ground with the bike on top of his body. He was a bonafide mess, in shock and covered with blood, being held up by his wife. He was sure his hip was broken and being in shock, just kept saying he couldn't sit up.

We called 911 and it was a bit of time before they got there. They assessed the situation and called for a medevac. We've had choppers land in the back yard before, but now that the motocross track is there, there wasn't enough room. They landed out on the highway and the EMT's carted him up to the pickup point.

Pre-surgery, the docs said he had a shattered pelvis, broken femur, broken finger, broken L3 and L4 vertabrae, deep gash across one eye and ear. Post surgery news was better in that the pelvis wasn't shattered, just broken. Both halves of the pelvis became disconnected from the backbone. That cuts down the recovery time significantly. They put pins in both sides of the pelvis, back and front. Also put a rod in the femur, set the finger and stitched up the ear. Today is plastic surgery on the eye area.

The wife has not left the hospital, so we have been shuttling fresh clothes and food, companionship and support for whatever she needs. The doc said he has to stay in hospital for at least a week, then he can have medical transport back to his home in Missouri.

All in all, it has been a terrible week for all involved, but no more than for Paul and his wife.

Will he ride again?...probably, you know boys and their toys!

This is my son Rodney. The only pic I have of Paul is laid out on a gurney, unconscious, and I will not post it.

Thanks for reading!
Tammy