Recalling Bike Helmets

One of the more exciting gifts our grandson Finley received for Hanukkah from his aunt Caitlin (Allison’s sister) was a helmet to wear while riding the tricycle she gave him for his second birthday a month earlier. He loves wearing it as he scoots around the basement. He even makes his parents wear their helmets as they watch him. I can’t tell you what brand it is, but I was immediately concerned when I saw a news release last week about a bicycle helmet recall because of the risk of head injury. I was concerned for good reason, as both our children survived nasty crashes.

Ellie’s head-over-handlebars tumble came shortly after I learned to ride. I was 40. Ellie was seven and had also recently mastered a two-wheeler. Gilda, Dan, his friend Aaron, Ellie and I loaded our bikes into the mini-van one Sunday afternoon and headed out to SUNY Purchase to ride around the perimeter car loop, a popular bike-riding venue. The boys and Gilda swiftly left Ellie and me in their wind-wake as we cautiously traversed the roadway.

About two-thirds of the way we came to the top of a steep descent. We gulped, then Ellie pedaled forward. And downward. And with increasing speed. She couldn’t hold her foot brake. Before my eyes, she flipped over and bounced on the pavement. Several times. Of course she cried, more from the trauma than from any injuries, which were almost negligible, thanks mostly to her helmet. Reluctantly, very reluctantly, she got back on her horse, I mean, bike, and we pedaled, sloooowly, to meet up with Dan, Aaron and Gilda, all the way Ellie alerting those ahead of us with her loud wailing.

Dan’s helmet-case was far more heart-stopping. After he turned 14, Dan said he no longer wanted to go to sleepaway summer camp. Instead, he desired to go on a mountain-bike tour of the West, beginning in Denver. We shipped him out on a Wednesday, one United Airlines ticket for him, another for his bike (United gave us two round-trip tickets as compensation for an aborted flight Gilda and I took from San Francisco to New York during which we had to slide down the emergency shutes. Here’s a link to that story: http://nosocksneededanymore.blogspot.com/2011/04/on-wing-and-prayer.html). From the airport the group of some 20 teenagers were trucked to Estes Park, about 80 miles northwest of Denver, for their first ride.

Going down a mountain trail, Dan flipped over the handlebars and did a head plant into the ground. His eyes rolled back in their sockets. The whole right side of his body, from the top of his head to his ankles, was bruised, bloodied and skin-torn. Naturally, the trip leaders wanted to get him to the hospital right away. But a thunderstorm developed over the mountain; everyone had to lay prone to the ground to avoid being hit by lightning.

Later that night we received a phone call from one of the staff. You know something bad has happened when the conversation starts with assurances your son is all right now, that he’s resting comfortably in the hospital.

Hospital? How big a hospital? 14 beds? You call that a hospital? It took us several minutes to realize the Estes Park hospital was a trauma center mainly focused on skiing and snowboarding accidents in the winter and mountain-bike and hiking accidents the rest of the year, with the occasional lightning strike victim thrown in. Indeed, two other patients brought in with Dan that day had been blistered by lightning. We couldn’t have asked for better professional care.

Dan emerged from the plane ride back two days later swaddled in bloody, pussy gauze and bandages. To this day Gilda wonders how anyone would have tolerated sitting next to him. To prevent scabs and then scars from forming on his body, she followed the advice of a plastic surgeon to keep his injuries moist. She bathed him (Dan accepted without debate or too much embarrassment the reasoning that his mother was a nurse practitioner and had seen many a naked man). His only “trophy” from the accident was a small scar on his knee on a spot he purposely did not want moistened.

So we sent him out on Wednesday and he returned to us Friday. The tour group graciously refunded his tuition and Bell exchanged his helmet for a new one. Seems a helmet is good for only one crash. Allison has informed me Finley’s helmet is not from the company involved in the recall. Here’s hoping Finley has no need for a new helmet until he outgrows aunt Caitlin’s gift.