Tom Glynn Crashes HARD at Death Ride Today - CoachP Redux
Tom Glynn rode Death Ride today in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 129 miles, 15k of climbing and 5 mountain passes. On the final descent he crashed. He has a fractured pelvis with a hematoma. He is currently in a South Lake Tahoe hospital and they are going to medivac him over to Reno where that hospital can handle his injuries.
I just got off the phone with his wife and they did a catscan and he has no other issues other than scrapes and bruises. She is driving up tomorrow and they will probably helicopter him back to the SF Bay Area in the next day or two.
I will call again tomorrow and get updated details and post here.
John
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Prayers to Tom, and strength for recovery and rehab.
The road is hard, our bodies are fragile. Everyone PLEASE take care.
So sorry to hear Tom. Good luck with your recovery, keep those thoughts positive and know that we are all thinking of you.
John, thank you for the update.
Yes, everyone, please ride safely.
Another crash! Tom, hope you are doing ok. Thanks for posting John. Ride safe peeps!
Oh No!!!
John send get well wishes, thanks for the update. Please us posted
wow that sucks! I thought we decided no more crashes?
Speedy Recovery Tom!
Hearing about this crash, to my dear friend made me so anxious last night, I could not sleep...
I feel sorry for people who suffer with anxiety because I just experienced it briefly and it sucks.
Prayers to Tom and Team Glynn.
Carrie
Here's the latest I have at 6:30 AM PST.
FROM TOM TO EN NORCAL:
Crashed my bike at 40+ mph. No head injuries or broken bones. Badly damaged hip socket pushed out a big piece about 4mm. Surgery and 10 days in hospital. Hips also badly calcified from exercise. Arthritis is already setting in and will probably get worse quickly. Hanging in Reno trauma unit. Finished all 5 climbs in Death Ride event just didn't make it down last hill.
. I'm in good spirits and thankful it wasn't worse. Phone dying. More later
Sent from my iPhone
FROM TOM'S WIFE
Hello everyone - thanks for your kind words and offers of help - looks like we may be taking you up on these in the near term - for those of you for whom have you to know what happened here is brief update
Here is what I now know:
Tom had a crash at high speed (roughly 40 mph he thinks) on the last descent of the day on the Death Ride....YUCK
They checked him out for cranial damage, vertebrae damage, eye damage, bone damage etc etc at South Lake Tahoe hospital and decided his injuries warranted his transfer to Reno area hospital (first helicopter ride of his life)
What they have found is that his right pelvic socket bone has moved approx. 4 cm out of the socket - what they believe will need to happen is wait 2 days or so for the swelling to go down - then do surgery (not sure what this will look like) and then recovery in the hospital - they currently believe he could be there upwards of 9 days
They have moved him to Reno Renowned Hospital where they have the ability to care for this kind of injury '
I am headed out to Reno tomorrow to learn more and see what the next steps are....for those of you in the Danville area any help you can give to Kira and Parker during my absence would be greatly appreciated!
We will learn more tomorrow including:
(1) can he be transported back to the Bay Area during the period of waiting for the swelling to reduce allowing for surgery to occur here
(2) what is the nature of the surgery (apparently his hips are a mess from all the years of hard exercise and have a lot of calcification)
(3) what is the background of the surgeons there in the event we do not have a choice and must leave him in Reno
Your best wishes are appreciated -
Will keep you all posted
PS - While he is in pain the pain killers are apparently working....
Dianne
Vince
You gotta know how I'm feeling about this. Can't believe it.
It will be a road to hoe, but like Keith, thank heaven it's all "recoverable." Shaking head, shaking head, and feeling sad Tom has to go through all that.
My word of advice to pass on to Tom and his wife...get to the BEST medical facility you can. Don't hesitate. Get the best doctor(s) you can to repair that hip. Even though Lahey Clinic is very well-regarded (it's where Keith was first brought), it was an entirely different level of care at Mass General. The facial reconstruction plan at MGH was in another stratosphere by comparison. Get moved if you have to.
Take care.
Tom,
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Sending positive thoughts your way.
Dave
HUGS!!!!!!!!!
Tom,
Take care and get well soon.
Gordon
Hey Tom,
Wishing you a full and speedy recovery!!
Best regards,
AC
Here is the latest at 7:43 PM PST:
Tom will stay in Reno and they will do surgery there on Wednesday. They have one of the top physicians in the country there. Then on Friday his wife and daughter will drive him home. It is a ~ 5 hour drive from Reno. I also understand he has been chatting with CoachP to get some insight on how best to deal with all this stuff!
Also, they won't know until they open him up but he may need to have a hip replacement at that time.
On another note, my wife and I invited his daughter and two sons over for dinner tonight. They had fun. Pic below. And I am sure that once Tom gets home Carrie Chavez will get the EN NorCal MASH unit folks all dialed in to help Team Glynn. Several folks have already offered to help with meals and such.
More later.
FYI - he was on a descent 30 minutes from the finish doing 40ish MPH and was having a hard time slowing down. His bike was wobbling when he braked and his speed was at 41 then 42 and then he tried to break again and went over the bars!
I can't even imagine. . . . .
Thanks John for updating the team. Great pic of the kids at your house. Just love those Glynn's. Look how grown up Kira is!! Beautiful!
I had two great chats with Tom today. So much comfort for me being able to hear his voice and know he is doing well considering. He is just so grateful to be alive. So grateful that this will heal per MD and he should be able to do the things he loves to do after he recovers. He is prepared for the road ahead. God knows he has an amazing network here to support him. He is one amazing guy. Just a very sweet and friendly person. There will be no shortage of help for him.
He truly is in a great hospital. They have covered all the bases and by a miracle the MD on call last night is a pelvic specialist who teaches all over the country!! Just awesome. He feels good about having the surgury with this MD!!!
Can't wait for him to be home so we can do more.
I have to say that the volume of injuries to friends in my life has now completely overwhelmed me. I pray before , during and after each ride for safety. I truly hope you all stay safe. Promise me you will all be extra careful and stay rubber side down:-).
XO Carrie
Thank you everyone for kind words and support, it truly makes a big difference.
For those that know me, you know that I am a speed chicken. I'll do my best to beat you up the hill, but always concede speed on the way down. My comfort zone goes to about 35 mph and gets really uncomfortable at 40. I've gone that fast, but not often. Anyway, just going down the descent back into town and the speed hits 35 or so. I start to brake and I can feel the bike start to wobble. I stop braking and touch my knees to the top tube to try and dampen the wobble. I realize that I'm still picking up speed and the road ahead is straight down for a long time. My speed is well over 40 and I can feel the wobble getting worse. All of a sudden the front wheel goes crzazy, I think, "OMG, I'm going to crash", which of courrse I do, flying over the handle bars. I must have done a complete flip and landed very hard on my lower right butt. I bounced really hard and came to a stop in the middle the highway with bikes and cars flying by me. Within 30 seconds this guy riding up the hill gets off his bike and comes over to help. Tells me he is a trauma surgeon and proceeds to check me out. He quickly determines no broken bones, neck, back etc. He helps me crawl at vey low speed to the side of the road and await help. Several spectators grab my bike and gear strew all over the highway and then offer support until the ambulance arrived.
In retrospect I laughed at myself because as I was crashing I was thinking the absolute worst case. Once laying on the side of the road bleeding I realized I was still alive and hadn't broken my back or neck so of course I ask to see my bike. There didn't appear to have a scratch on it that wasn't there 10 minutes ago. I see that my Joule is still attached. Such ridiculous thoughts.
In the ambulance the paramedic cuts off a bunch of the shredded clothing and tells me he's going to remove my shoes too. He fumbles with the shoe bindings for a minute or so unable to release the strap. He says very nicely to me that he is going to cut the shoe straps off. I reply back that we should step back and let me walk him through the process. He asks if they are expensive shoes, $50 or so. I told him closer to $300, so please let me try to talk him through it. 5 minutes later they pop and I'm thrilled. Hiqh fives all around.
X-rays at the hospital reveal no broken bones, but the doctor decides to do a scan to look closer at the lower hip. Results come back and I'm being shipped from Tahoe to Reno wilth a probable cracked hip socket and a large hematoma (clot). Reno has a trauma center, so I get a very cool helicopter ride over and around Tahoe.
The doctor that greets me lets me know that he is an orthopedic surgeon on the trauma unit and specializes in exactly what he thinks I have. A bunch more tests later he let's me know that it's worse than he thought. I had damaged a big section of my ball joint and it would require surgery to fix. Oh yeah, 10 days in the hospital too. The most stressful part of the day was calling my wife 300 miles away at home and breaking the news.
She flew up the next morning to help out. We decided that even though the doctor appeared to be highly qualified, we would prefer to be closer to home for the amazing support we were getting from friends and family. Our doctor recommended someone he had trained and was working at Stanford. We took his advice and started the transfer process rolling. Several hours later the process came to a screeching stop when we were told we would have to pickup the moving tab out of pocket. At $10K, the was just wasn't doable. We started asking around through some friends to get feedback on the surgeon and we got nothing but great things to say about him. Very meticulous, board certified, and travelled the country teaching his speciality. All the nurses that were at my side during the also said the same.
I am now scheduled for surgery Tuesday afternoon, recovery for a few days and then back to the Bay Area for several months or more of PT. I may make a complete recovery and was told that being in very good shape was going to make a huge difference. I was however also given some other news stating the my hips were very heavily calcified from years of heavy exercise and the doctors couldn't believe I wasn't in constant pain. Also a large side affect risk of the surgery is a high probability of arthritis setting in in the near term.
All in all I am thankful to be alive and without head or spine injuries. A patient down the hall, also part of the same ride wasn't as lucky as me. She's suffered massive head injuries and at one point was near death according to a nurse I was talking too. I think she's going to make it, but I got off easy.
The trauma center I'm at has been fantastic. I'm truly thankful for friends and family to helping out. It's made a world of difference.
It's time for bed, but I'll keep updates coming.
Tom
Tom wishing you a speedy recovery.
I will echo the sentiments of Carrie, with all these crashes lately it really has me thinking. Be safe out there.
Tom- Really glad to hear from you directly. So sorry about this crash. Very fortunate that the hospital has a top pelvic surgeon. Please know that warm thoughts and huge hugs are being sent virtually. Keep us updated.