Two months after suffering an accident that almost cost him his life, Keagan Girdlestone has spoken for the first time about the 'most testing' weeks of his life. Girdlestone crashed into the back of a team car while chasing back to the peloton following a previous incident during the Coppa della Pace race at the start of June.
"Hello World, it's been a while!" Girdlestone wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. "As most of you probably already know, I was in a pretty bad accident 8 weeks ago that nearly ended my life. This has been the most testing 8 weeks of my life and the first few weeks were very dark, probably because I was sleeping most of it or have little memory of what happened in those weeks."
Girdlestone went through the back windscreen of the car at the Coppa della Pace, where he was racing for the Dimension Data continental squad. The accident resulted in life-threatening cuts to his jugular and carotid arteries that prevented blood and oxygen from reaching his brain. He lost a lot of blood and also suffered serious nerve and muscle damage.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thanks to swift work by race doctors and those at the hospital in Rimini, the young South African survived the horrific accident. He spent 22 days in intensive care before being transported to the Department of Neurosurgical Science at San Giorgio hospital in Ferrara. It's too early to tell what lasting damage there may be as a result of the crash, but Girdlestone has made some big strides towards recovery. It has been far from an easy path, as the 19-year-old explained in his post, but he has been able to find some humour in the situation.
"During that time I was hallucinating and the things I thought I saw make me worry about myself. And the things I apparently said, 'mum these nurses are trying to f'ing kill me' - luckily they are Italian and speak little to no English haha," wrote Girdlestone.
"Anyway back to being serious. I should be dead. It's a miracle I'm able to walk, talk (very softly as my vocal cord is damaged) and have brain functionality. Over the last few weeks, since I can remember, I don't think I've ever cried or lost my temper so quickly in my life. I guess that's what it feels like to have PMS (ladies, am I right?).
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2aNfSVj
No comments:
Post a Comment