3-State Injury Update

The 2005 3-State 3-Mountain Challenge was a huge success. Well over 1250 riders had a wonderful and rewarding ride.

However, as with all events of this magnitude and risk, there were some injuries - one very serious. I realize that there were several other accidents along the way but these are the ones that I know about.

Terry Trecartin - Suck Creek Mountain

As most of you know there was an extremely bad accident on Suck Creek Mountain between a cyclist going down the mountain and a car coming up. The cyclist, Terry Trecartin, age 27, is in very serious condition. The details of the accident are still being sorted out. Witnesses have said that the driver of the car was going slow and very courteous to the cyclists.

Probably the most accurate information on Terry's condition can be found on the Chattanooga Bicycle Club forum. Click here or go to our website - www.chattbike.com and click where it says Chattanooga Bicycle Club Forum. Select the 'general' category and you will see the thread. Most of the posting for a while is just question, speculation or rumor. Well into it is a posting by Shane with excerpts from an email from Terry's uncle with comments from Terry's dad. It is very good information. We continue to stay in contact with the family. Terry's condition seems to be improving. When I have any more information, I will add it here.

Terry is still in very critical condition but he is showing improvement. Please keep those thoughts and prayers going. He is at Erlanger and still in the TICU so I don't believe flowers are appropriate yet. However, I am sure cards are welcome. His home address is 10247 Bainum Dr, Ooltewah, TN 37363.

Terry Trecartin Fund

The Chattanooga Bicycle Club has set up a fund for Terry and his family. All received funds will go directly to Terry and his family. We are hoping that this can help get them over the day to day expenses that keep coming even when everyday life has paused for Terry and Shannon. Every little bit that we can do will help them over this trying time.

Please make the checks out to:
Chattanooga Bicycle Club Benefit Account (or CBC Benefit Account)
and send it to:
PO Box 11495
Chattanooga, TN 37401

You can indicate that it is for the Terry Trecartin fund but we will know that by it being made to the Benefit Account. Please do not send cash. This is just a way of helping a fellow cyclist and his family through their time of need.

You can donate online through active.com - CBC will pay the processing fee so everything you give will go to Terry.

Please keep Terry in your thoughts and prayers.

Aug 20, 2005: Update and Thoughts from Homer Trecartin, Terry's Dad

Now, three long, agonizing months later, I am sitting by Terry’s bed in Shepherd Rehab Center in Atlanta. He is sitting up, eating, smiling. His trache is gone. His peg (stomach tube) has been removed. There are no monitors beeping quietly and lighting up his room at night with their eerie flickers. His electric wheel chair is parked in the hallway and he gets to drive it around to his various therapy appointments and outside to the garden/park. He is laughing, talking, and planning for the future.

“Dad,” he says, as he finishes chewing the last bite of his lunch, “I was thinking. I should call Dr Swafford* and talk with him about what jobs I can still do.” And suddenly I have to turn away a little so he won't see the tears welling up in my eyes – tears of joy at the tremendous changes that have taken place in Terry’s mind and body. And tears of worry and confusion over what is still to come for my boy.

I don't know what the future holds for Terry and Shannon. Terry still struggles with his speech and coordination in his hands. He knows what he wants to do and say – he just can't always make it come out the way he wants (or at least as quickly as he wants). He has no feeling or movement from mid chest down.

My emotions are like roller coasters these days (a type of torture machine that no one in their right mind would ever want to ride). But, it seems that whenever I start to struggle with the unknown future, my computer screensaver pops up one of the pictures I took on that first day as we arrived to see Terry. I shudder and start to turn away from the image of that bruised and bloated body lying motionless in the ICU bed. And then I look over at Terry – sitting there smiling at me, or telling me about what he did in therapy a few minutes ago, or playing a game with Shannon and his Mom. Suddenly I am overwhelmed at my petty complaining.

“I'm sorry Lord. Thank you SO much for what you have done for me to this point. How can I doubt that you will continue to lead from here on?”

September 24, 2005

WHISTLE AND SWIM

Thursday Terry told me excitedly that he had learned to whistle again the night before. It took a few minutes of trying again, but he got it finally and was almost as proud as the first time he learned to do it. We were also thrilled. It shows that he is getting more and more fine motor control.

Every day Terry has two or three therapy sessions. Shepherd Center has a system of rehab teams (doctor, nurse, technician, case manager, counselor, PT - physical therapist, OT - occupational therapist, ST - speech/cognitive therapist, and TR - therapeutic recreation therapist) that meet together every week to discuss the 3-5 patients assigned to their team (some of them also are on other teams at the same time). They determine goals for the next week for each patient as well as long term and they all work toward those goals.

The therapeutic recreation therapist and her team of specialists plan activities that will serve two purposes. First, they want to prepare Terry for going home when he suddenly has more leisure time than before his accident. For a while after a spinal cord injury (maybe a year or two) 50% of the person's time will now be leisure and 50% taken up with maintenance (dressing, bowel and bladder programs, getting in and out of bed, etc. etc. etc.). Contrast that with the average adult who has about 25% for leisure, 25% for maintenance, and 50% for work. While they are at the Center they are kept busy all day. But when they go home they have a sudden and HUGE adjustment to life. What are they going to do with all that extra time?

OK, all of us say, we would love to try, and probably we would for a short time. But soon it would wear old. Research shows that if a person with a spinal cord injury (probably true of retirees, and others as well) just sits and tries to think of something to do they get depressed. Research also shows that the more a person with SCI (spinal cord injury) watches TV the more illnesses they will have - probably not from the TV, but from the complications of sitting without remembering to move, eating too much, no exercise, depression, etc. Conversely, research shows that the more often a person with SCI goes out of the house, the more healthy they are. So, the TR team wants to make sure patients leave with a broad range of activities that they have been exposed to enough that they know they could do them.

The second purpose of the TR outings and activities is to duplicate the PT and OT they are getting. For instance - Terry is working on reaching and balance in PT - one of his outings was to the Farmer's Market where he was supposed to reach for things and put them in his basket. He is working on fine motor skills in his fingers. So one of his recreational activities has been to plant tomato and radish seeds and transplant a cactus into a pretty pot and put sand, shells, etc. around it. Sensing where his hands are in space is difficult and something they are working on - so a trip to a Braves game encouraged him to clap, point, and shout (voice volume is another task he is working on in speech therapy).

He has tie dyed a shirt (fine motor finger coordination), had a session with an adapted camera (see picture),worked out in the weight room, learned about hand operated bicycles (he is determined to get one and finish the ride he was on when he had his accident), and spent a weekend camping where they slept on mats on the floor of a large lodge type building. He has been to the botanical gardens, gone out to eat a couple of times, and is spending this weekend with Shannon in the hotel on a "pass" from the hospital. He attended a class where they showed how people (including quads - Terry is a para) can still go kayaking and canoeing. It was taught by one of the therapists who used to work for a company that led accessible outings in the Boundary Waters of MN and many other places that Terry loves.

But I think the highlight of his week was getting to spend an hour in the pool. He had two therapists in the water with him in case he got in trouble, but he was able to float, paddle, and even hold his breath and float on his stomach. He would try to roll over when it was time to come up, but he said they always grabbed him too soon and helped. He said they didn't know how long he could hold his breath under water (I think he didn't know how long we were all holding our breath watching and wondering if he was going to be OK :-). All of these activities are not just play, but are carefully calculated to help the patient reach the goals the team have set.

Now, as Terry goes into the day program next week (living in an apartment across the road with Shannon and coming into Shepherd for a full day of therapy each day), he will be more involved in helping to set his own goals for the next 2-4 weeks of outpatient rehab. He is making tremendous progress and we praise God for it. We also are VERY thankful to the dedicated team members who have been helping him through these last months here at Shepherd Center.

"BUT IT'S MY LIFE!"

I was stunned when I learned that by the end of August Terry's medical bills were well over $700,000. His insurance policy has a million dollar lifetime limit, and he will soon be reaching that. The time in ICU at Erlanger and the surgeries he had there were about 85% of that total, but Shepherd Center has not been cheap either. Now, for the rest of his life, he will have increased costs. His motorized wheel chair will be about $15,000 and his hand propelled one will be around $5,000 (and they don't last forever). These are not just normal wheelchairs like you or I might use if we broke a leg or even had an amputation. We can feel our legs and know when we need to change positions or are getting a sore - Terry can't feel down there. He has to have specially developed cushions that don't hold moisture against his skin or break down when he sits unmoving for long periods of time. They have to have mechanisms that move him to a new position from time to time so the blood can return to the area he was sitting on, etc.

Now, I want you to take this the right way. I am building up to a point, not complaining about what we and Terry are facing.

Terry was wearing a helmet on the bike ride, and always did. But a high percentage of the young men who pass through these halls wouldn't wear helmets or seat belts, or drank before driving. Often, when they were confronted with it in the past they would respond, "But it's my life! What does it matter what I do? Even if I get hurt it is my body that gets hurt."

I was always uncomfortable with those statements, but now I know first hand how shortsighted and self-centered they are. I see families every day who try to smile around their loved one and then go out in the hallway to cry. I see mom's and dad's whose jobs are on the verge of being lost, grandparents who are struggling to push wheelchairs or see clearly enough to insert a catheter, sisters who dropped out of college to come and help hold the phone to a younger brother's ear or feed him early in the morning. I hear of homes that are being remodelled, cars that are being sold at a loss and loans taken out to buy a van to transport the loved one. I see families sleeping on cots in the gym at night because they can't afford to stay in the hotel, but they want to be here to help.

Last week I saw a young mother in the hall with her husband. He is a quad now. I don't know how his accident happened, but there in his lap was a newborn baby - obviously born after the accident. He could look at it, but not touch it unless someone helped move his hand and even then he couldn't feel it. There was a sad, almost haunted look in his eyes as he gazed at this little one. I can only imagine the anguished thoughts they both have at night as they wonder how they will make it now. She has not only the baby to care for, but him. He won't be able to work again for months - if ever - how can he support them?

I hope no one tells me "It's my life" again - at least not anytime soon. If they do I know my blood will boil. Hopefully I won't be unkind, but I get angry just thinking about the hurt I have seen which in many cases might have been avoided had someone not thought an accident would only affect them, or a drink would not cause any problems. Of course, accidents can happen to anyone - Terry is a good example of that. When I walk around the hospital I don't know which patients were living on the edge and which were just caught up in a tragedy, but the staff tell me that well over half of the patients they see each year would not be here if they had been wearing seat belts in the car or helmets on the bike, and a high percentage would not be here if they had not been drinking (or someone else was and that caused the accident).

Enjoy life. But remember - what happens to you affects a lot of the rest of us as well.

PICTURE - READY, SET, SHOOT

Terry and Ray, one of the TR (Therapeutic Recreation) specialists. Taking pictures with a flexible tripod that attaches to the wheel chair and helps him hold the camera steadier than he normally could. He was also using a remote with a button to focus and shoot.

This is just a sample of the wonderful and moving thoughts Homer has shared with us throughout this whole ordeal. Most can be viewed on the CBC Forum. Once at the Forum, select 'General' then '3-State Crash'.

We are still taking donations to the Terry Fund. Neither Terry, Shannon, Homer or Barbara (Terry's parents who left their mission work in Cypress and the Middle East to be near and able to care for Terry) have jobs. Believe me, everything that we have contributed to the fund has been needed and appreciated. As of August 1, 2005, donations had been made for $9,180 from wonderful, caring folks all over the country and Canada.

Paul Brinson - Hit and Run before Marion County Sag

Paul Brinson, age 70, has been released from the hospital with, I believe, a fractured clavicle, pelvis and cracked ribs. This injury was caused by a hit and run driver. The information we have now is that it was an old beat up Ford pickup truck. It was white on top with a darker bottom - worn and faded. There was no gun rack, no stickers and there was a tailgate. If you have any more information, please let us know.

Paul is home and in good spirits although a good bit of pain. His address is 323 Lakeview Dr, Turtletown, TN 37391 - phone 423/496-5299.

Update on Paul: August 20, 2005

Paul is back on the bike and anxious to finish the 3-State and earn his patch, starting at the Marion County sag where his ride was aborted. He asked Dave Ward to finish it with him and Dave said "I haven't been riding much lately. I'm out of shape. He will skunk me!" When Dave asked several others, he got similar responses. Hopefully we will find someone soon who is "man enough" to finish the 3-State with Paul. Paul is waiting!

September 14, 2005

At last, Paul got his wish. George French met him at Finley Stadium and the drove over to Marion County Park where they started the completion to the 3-State 3-Mountain Challenge. Several of us were at the Stadium to greet them and cheer them in.

Congratulations, Paul! It only took 3124 hours and 30 minutes to complete the century. That must be some kind of record!

Keith Caruso

I also crashed at 3S3M this year, hitting a car descending Hales Gap off of Sand Mountain in Dade County, GA. I wasn't hurt very much (broken rib and aggravation of a prior left rotator cuff tear) and was able to finish in 5:44, even with 15-20 minutes of police reports. I wouldn't ordinarily say anything about it, but my riding buddy pointed out that a number of people saw me crash and may not know the outcome. Thus, I figured I would give an update. I'm fine and have logged about 300 miles on my Litespeed since.