[CR]Off topic: How's Chuck (& his bike) doing...

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Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 23:50:49 -0800
From: "Chuck Schmidt" <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Off topic: How's Chuck (& his bike) doing...

To start at the beginning of almost my ending:

Headed south down El Molino late Friday afternoon on the south side of Pasadena, close by the Ritz-Carlton and Cal Tech, a very small two lane road down a ravine lined with mansions from the 1910s and '20s.

There's an SUV coming towards me (I'm probably traveling 18-22 mph down the incline) and in an instant the driver turns in front of me to enter their driveway. That's my last recollection till the guys in the emergency vehicle ask my wife's name and number as they cut away my mussette's strap and shoulder of my Assos jersey to see where the massive amount of blood is coming from.

Next I'm in Emergency at Huntington Hospital about a mile from the accident scene (picture a resort/spa hotel and I'm not exaggerating), seeing my wife Sherry (we live about two miles from the hospital), getting a full body CT scan, and then to surgery to fix the five+ inch gash across the right side of my neck. Apparently I went through the right side window of the SUV with my helmeted head and gashed my neck on the glass; my face is untouched, however my Giro helmet is completely smashed and broken at the front. The surgeon finds that there is a nick in my jugular vein and lots of glass still in the wound. The x-rays reveal that my collar bone is broken in two places, my shoulder blade is broken in two places, my rib is broken along with a badly bruised right lung; the doctor says luckily the nerves in my neck aren't severed which would have paralyzed my right arm and right side of my face.

I leave the surgery recovery room about midnight and am placed in the Critical Care Unit, and then finally to a private room Saturday afternoon on the fifth floor with a beautiful view south to Raymond Hill and the Montebello hills five miles away. The night has been a series of IVs, fitful sleep and the morphine drip for pain with its own self administering button to push (very handy) which makes me sick to my stomach by the next day (typical reaction) and the check of vital signs every four hours. The next morning is the introduction of the lung exercise gismo (do the Merckx lung volume thing ten times every hour).

Sunday is TV, IV, Vicodin, lung gismo, naps, visits from family and friends with news of the day's Rose Bowl vintage ride, my wife by my side, another night in the hospital spa/resort and release at noon Monday with my arm in a sling, very lucky to be alive.

Now for the important news... how's the '02 black and polished stainless Waterford Road/Track. The bike was put into the emergency vehicle at the scene of the accident and placed in the walk-in shower at the hospital Emergency room (real VIP treatment) where my wife picked it up and took it home while I was in surgery. I looked at the bike yesterday evening and this morning an here's what I found. The bars and seat still point straight ahead, a gash in the cork bar tape on the right bar, a broken left bar end plug, the brake lever on the left is a few degrees off from straight ahead and has a small scuff at the bottom, a white paint mark on the left side of the top tube (from my shoe grazing the top tube?), a very small scuff on the left side of the Brooks Flite with a few tiny scratches across one of the rivets, a few light scratches on the left end of the rear track hub axle, two 1/8 inch paint chips down to primer on right chain stay, AND THAT'S IT!!!

How is this possible given the extensive blunt force my body sustained? Friday afternoon before starting my ride, I tied a champagne cork under my Brooks as I was taught to do for good luck by my mentor and friend Ted Ernst. This was the tradition taught to Ted by the six day racers from the 1920s and '30s. As Ted likes to say, "That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!"

Here's a reason for getting a ride in every day. On the band the emergency guys put on my wrist before getting to the hospital was hand written "John Doe 1958" (they hadn't checked my wallet yet or they would have seen it was supposed to be "1944" :)

In closing, I of course can't thank all of you enough for taking the time to write on and off list wishing me a speedy recovery. I'm touched and I feel blessed.

Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California

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