Day 51: Rider Down, Rider Down

We were riding along the I&M Canal tow path. A nice compacted crushed gravel path. I heard a squeal and saw Susan’s bike veer the spit her off to the left. She landed on her left shoulder and head. Bill shouted, “Rider Down, Rider Down.” As I peddled the 150 feet to where she crashed I was watching and hoping to see her stand right up. She had taken a hard fall and was struggling to get her wind back when Diane and I joined Bill at her side. She had hit her head pretty hard and was dazed. Sylvia was on 911 with a complete idiot. After a couple minutes Susan was more comfortable. Sylvia had hung up on 911 and was trying to use her navigation application to pinpoint our position. I realized Kevin wasn’t on the scene and gave him a call. He had stopped about a mile ahead of us and after I filled him in he said he could see someone mowing on a tractor. The mowing crew was more effective at raising the alert than the stupid 911. That operator had recommended that we call the state police and that we could scrawl the phone number in the dirt with a stick since we didn’t have any thing to write with. About 10 minutes later a park ranger in a truck arrived. Then two other vehicles one carrying Kevin showed up. Susan’s first memory of the crash is her response to the rescuer ‘s question “Can you see OK?”. She replied, ”I see good looking guy in front of me.” They placed her on a backboard then left with her. We loaded her bike and BOB on a truck and Kevin left in it to pick up his bike and be dropped off at the ER. Rose, a local woman, said she would show us the way to the hospital. As we turned into the hospital I lead Sylvia followed by Diane and Bill. I heard a squeal, Bill hollered, ’Rider Down”. I looked back to see Diane on the pavement. She was in bad shape. Diane had hit her head hard and was bleeding from her mouth unable to respond to our questions or focus her eyes. It seemed to take forever for the ambulance to get there. A nurse had come from the parking lot to help. I called Kevin and he ran over to the scene. The ambulance arrived and we walked our bikes to the ER. While checking her in we were swarmed by hospital management. They said she was ’nonverbal’ and arrangements to life flight her from Ottawa to Peoria were being made. Judging by the administrators actions we thought the worse. After a brief lunch we were allowed to see Diane. Our spirits were lifted. She recognized us, said our names and followed our conversation. She was moving all her limbs. The cat scan showed a bruised to the back right side of her brain. The helicopter arrived and soon she was on her way to St Francis in Peoria.
Bill’s college friend and his wife arrived from Joliet. They are taking Susan and Diane’s bikes and BOB’s to a bike shop to be boxed shipped. As we loaded her bike we noticed Diane's front tire was soft and figured a slow leak had caused her bike to handle unexpectedly resulting in the crash though no one really know's. Diane’s daughter is making arraignments to get here. Diane’s friend that she spent last night visiting, Connie, who’s a nurse, is on her way to St Francis to see the latest cat scan and take Diane’s personal stuff to her. We hope to hear from Connie soon. Susan has an afternoon flight out of O’Hare to Tulsa. We’ll spend the day tying up other loose ends here in Ottawa and praying for Diane to make a rapid recovery.