I figured I would share this with you to help stress the importance of being careful. I'm a 23 year old guy with a 19 foot rinker. This story is sort of a freak incident.
We boat at Dale Hollow in TN and we ride golf carts from the boat dock area to our buildings/camp sites. On Friday 6/2 we were out boating all day and the weather started to cloud up and rain so we came in and docked the boat etc. (Docking the boat and walking on the ramp are the last things I remember myself until Sunday, but my friend and fiance with me told me what happened) Anyways we walked up the ramp to the golf cart and started heading back to the house. My friend was driving and my fiance was in the front and I was in one of the seats on the back. About halfway up the road heading to the houses I slipped or something on the back seat and fell off at about 10-15mph on to the pavement head first. I am told I wasn't unconcious but my eyes just started to roll back in my head and I wasn't moving much. An ambulance was called and I was taken to the nearest hospital about 20 miles away in TN. They said the ambulance people were asking me questions like "who is the president of the united states" and I had no idea. I've been told I was puking up straight blood all night at the hospital in TN. (no i wasnt drunk either haha) The doctor at the TN hospital ran two CT scans and xrays on me and said everything is fine and I could go if I could tell him what my name was and who the president was. I finally got those right on Saturday.
On Sunday I was taken back to Indianapolis where I live and Sunday is the day i actually have a memory for myself. Monday I went to a doctor here at the hospital who ran MRI and CT Scan and found that I cracked the left side of my skull just above the ear, had a contusion on that side and had a blood clot about 1.5in by 1inch on that side of my skull where I hit. Luckily there was no internal hemmoraging and the blood clot was int he dura layer of the brain so it wasn't in an artery or anything. By about 6/8 I wasn't so wacked out by the hit and could actually type setences and stuff pretty clearly again. The doctor says I should have a full recovery in a few months, but I cant do anything agressive like water ski or jet ski or anything like that where I could smack my head again. He said if I hit that area again in the next 6 months or so its not going to be very good at all. He said I was very lucky to not have any permanent seizurs or be a vegetable in a nursing home because that hti was no joke to crack a skull like that and that if it had been anywhere but on the side of my head I probably would have permanent if not fatal injuries. Apparently they sides ofyour head just above the ears is a "silent area" and not near as dangerous as hitting the front of back with the same trauma.
Anyways, be careful things happen. The doctor cleared me back to my office job this week, not really because im all there right now but because i dont want to have to burn up anymore vacation time that I have planned for boating later this summer
The first 8 days I used all "sick time". Everything is pretty good now aside from some dizziness when getting up and i only have about 60% hearing in the ear under where the crack is healing. Some things just aren't so apparent either - like I forgot what type of bilge pump my boat had and some other junk like that i would normally know. (i just ask in the forums here now haha)
But on the exact same day my exhaust hose and shutter on my boat broke and started a big leak in the boat (while I was at the hospital) and filled my 1995 rinker with a lot of water. My friends on the dock bilged it out and put it on my trailer and stuff, but now I have to get all that taken care of too - what an eventful week its been! The mechanic is going to replace the y pipe and both shutters - apparently that is a pretty common problem on 90-96 rinker 4.3 merc engines.
But ya, dont fall off golf carts!
We boat at Dale Hollow in TN and we ride golf carts from the boat dock area to our buildings/camp sites. On Friday 6/2 we were out boating all day and the weather started to cloud up and rain so we came in and docked the boat etc. (Docking the boat and walking on the ramp are the last things I remember myself until Sunday, but my friend and fiance with me told me what happened) Anyways we walked up the ramp to the golf cart and started heading back to the house. My friend was driving and my fiance was in the front and I was in one of the seats on the back. About halfway up the road heading to the houses I slipped or something on the back seat and fell off at about 10-15mph on to the pavement head first. I am told I wasn't unconcious but my eyes just started to roll back in my head and I wasn't moving much. An ambulance was called and I was taken to the nearest hospital about 20 miles away in TN. They said the ambulance people were asking me questions like "who is the president of the united states" and I had no idea. I've been told I was puking up straight blood all night at the hospital in TN. (no i wasnt drunk either haha) The doctor at the TN hospital ran two CT scans and xrays on me and said everything is fine and I could go if I could tell him what my name was and who the president was. I finally got those right on Saturday.
On Sunday I was taken back to Indianapolis where I live and Sunday is the day i actually have a memory for myself. Monday I went to a doctor here at the hospital who ran MRI and CT Scan and found that I cracked the left side of my skull just above the ear, had a contusion on that side and had a blood clot about 1.5in by 1inch on that side of my skull where I hit. Luckily there was no internal hemmoraging and the blood clot was int he dura layer of the brain so it wasn't in an artery or anything. By about 6/8 I wasn't so wacked out by the hit and could actually type setences and stuff pretty clearly again. The doctor says I should have a full recovery in a few months, but I cant do anything agressive like water ski or jet ski or anything like that where I could smack my head again. He said if I hit that area again in the next 6 months or so its not going to be very good at all. He said I was very lucky to not have any permanent seizurs or be a vegetable in a nursing home because that hti was no joke to crack a skull like that and that if it had been anywhere but on the side of my head I probably would have permanent if not fatal injuries. Apparently they sides ofyour head just above the ears is a "silent area" and not near as dangerous as hitting the front of back with the same trauma.
Anyways, be careful things happen. The doctor cleared me back to my office job this week, not really because im all there right now but because i dont want to have to burn up anymore vacation time that I have planned for boating later this summer
The first 8 days I used all "sick time". Everything is pretty good now aside from some dizziness when getting up and i only have about 60% hearing in the ear under where the crack is healing. Some things just aren't so apparent either - like I forgot what type of bilge pump my boat had and some other junk like that i would normally know. (i just ask in the forums here now haha)But on the exact same day my exhaust hose and shutter on my boat broke and started a big leak in the boat (while I was at the hospital) and filled my 1995 rinker with a lot of water. My friends on the dock bilged it out and put it on my trailer and stuff, but now I have to get all that taken care of too - what an eventful week its been! The mechanic is going to replace the y pipe and both shutters - apparently that is a pretty common problem on 90-96 rinker 4.3 merc engines.
But ya, dont fall off golf carts!