Mike: I would settle for second, third, whatever, if it comes to that. I've done this since I've been a kid. It's what I love, is what I love to do.
I actually started [riding inaudible 00:00:20], my dad started me in 1969. I was five years old and I had a little donut wheel mini bike. My very first race were in Mendon, Ohio on that little doughnut wheel mini bike. I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up getting a, and I still have it, I have a little third place trophy I got and that's when I pretty much started doing it from there on out.
Mike’s wife: He's riding, racing and he's... it was his heat race and he's straight away ahead of everybody else in the race.
Mike: I started trying different lines and I was basically just playing, having a little fun. Got a little too high and went in a little too hard. It's a split second decision and try to ride it out or lay the bike down and take your chance, whatever. So that's what I did. I just laid the bike down, it's not a big deal. We do it, I mean, not all the time, but it happens.
Mike’s wife: Normally when they do that, they get back up, start the bike and keep going, but he laid there and he laid there and the longer he laid there, I knew something was wrong.
Mike: I could not breathe. So first I thought, well, just knocked the wind out of me. And then I realized it wasn't coming back.
Mike’s wife: Paramedics came, took us to [inaudible 00:02:03]. They did some CT scans, they're like, "You've got five broken ribs, we're going to keep you overnight just for observation and you'd probably go home tomorrow." We were like, "All right, that's cool. We've had broken ribs before. Not a new thing for us."
Mike: I got home on a Sunday and it was I think Monday night, I was sleeping in the chair in the living room because I couldn't get up the steps and I couldn't lay down anyhow, but I woke up three in the morning. I just sat straight up. I couldn't breathe again at all. I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk and I crawled on my hands and knees to the steps, to the kitchen, to the living room, to the kitchen, to the hallway and beat on the side of the steps, which woke our dog up. She barked, which woke Tina up and she come right down and she called 911.
CareFlight: Depending upon what we've seen in transport, we're actually going to call Miami Valley hospital, call the physician and tell them what we're seeing on the way. He was breathing rapidly, so about 30 times a minute, which is significant. That's the one piece of information we have and we know something is wrong in Mike's body. We don't know necessarily what it is at this point. That's why we come to a trauma center.
Dr. Semon: Mike developed pretty severe pulmonary complications as a result of his rib fractures. Rib fractures are very painful and they take several months to heal. The ribs fracture commonly in a pattern, what's called the flail chest and that's where the ribs fractured in two places. So if you imagine a piece of bone that's floating in the middle of space, your whole rib cage is expanding and contracting every time you breathe. But this flail segment where the bone fragments are completely separate from the rest of the rib cage is just floating in space and that causes severe pain and that little fragment can poke into the lung and cause bleeding or a collapse of the lung.
Trauma APP: Rib plating expedites recovery, it speeds the process along, helps with pain control and making sure they can take big deep breaths and increase their activity maybe a little bit faster than somebody who would let them heal on their own.
Dr. Semon: What we do is we make an incision overlying the area of the broken ribs and we identify all of those areas with displacement of the ribs. We then realign the broken ribs and we place a titanium plate that bridges the fracture. We then secure that plate on either side of the fracture with titanium screws.
Mike’s wife: After surgery, we met with Dr. Semon and he came out and told us that two ribs were just floating and the whole side was just, it was just a mess. It was mush and he would've never recovered if he hadn't had that surgery.
Dr. Semon: Rib plating is just the beginning of the game. I always tell patients it's a marathon, not a sprint after an accident like this. After surgery is really when the fun begins. Physical, occupational, speech therapy all get involved to make sure that we rehabilitate the patient back to their baseline.
Mike: Since then I've raced, I don't know, seven or eight races. Gone to the gym three, four times a week. I do a lot of mountain bike riding every week, three or four times a week.
Dr. Semon: My whole goal with doing the rib fracture surgery in any patient with multiple rib fractures is to get them back doing what they love and not being limited by this chronic pain and discomfort that comes from these rib fractures. So Mike is back riding his motorcycle, doing what he loves and if I've done that for him, then I've achieved all my goals as a surgeon.
Mike: I can't even begin to say enough about Miami Valley.
Mike’s wife: They were awesome. They were awesome. They truly care. And most importantly, they kept us calm and everything was normal to them and things that he was going through, they're like, "This is normal. It's okay." And for us, that's the farthest from normal.
Mike: They would go above and beyond. I mean, they were really... I just couldn't believe that, I don't know, I can't say enough about them.
