In article <
[email protected]>,
Robin Johnson <
[email protected]> wrote:
>A friend who is about to start cycling says that her dad says that A&E
>don't have to treat cyclists for head injuries if they weren't wearing a
>helmet in an accident.
Obviously we all know this is bollocks but perhaps anecdata will help
convince where arguments from official policy (or epidemiology) won't.
When my front wheel locked solid and I went over the bars at 20mph in
September last year, I got taken to A&E in an ambulance and they
cleaned up and supergluedglued a couple of cuts on my head.
I wasn't wearing a helmet - which IMO is a jolly good thing, as I
think it likely that if I had been I would have suffered much more
severe injuries - rotational concussion or spinal damage would have
been on the cards. As it was badly shaken and had cuts and bruises,
but no concussion. A few hours later I was well enough to go and
fetch the bike, which was about 200m from home, and then to prefer to
ride it back (carefully!), peering out of the rapidly developing black
eye, rather than walk.
The ambulance crew asked me whether I was wearing `a hat'. The A&E
nurse did ask whether I was wearing a helmet and tried to tell me I
should but backed off rapidly when I asked for their card so I could
email them references.
Writeup and camera footage of the crash at
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/bikecams/
--
Ian Jackson personal email: <
[email protected]>
These opinions are my own.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/
PGP2 key 1024R/0x23f5addb, fingerprint 5906F687 BD03ACAD 0D8E602E FCF37657