I’m told that I was very lucky.
On April 6 I was out in the early evening on my Vespa with my good buddy, Herman Estevez who was on his, and we were heading up from Soho on the West Side to cross Central Park on the 79th Street transverse towards our favorite sushi place on East 80th Street and 2nd Avenue. I was not in good spirits that day. In fact, I was feeling distracted and depressed. On a few occasions up the West Side Herman would yell at me to sit up straight and pay attention. I was not riding smart.
The fact is I’m a biker with a custom Harley I’ve been riding for almost 20 years. I’ve put over 100,000 miles on motorcycles riding all over the Country and I consider myself a pretty skillful, careful (and lucky) rider, never having any serious accidents. My spills were pretty limited and had to do mostly .with parking lot maneuvers where gravel was involved. But this was not going to be a good day. As it turned out, when crossing the Park at 79th, I suppose I must have phased out for a moment. I remember seeing the curb and wall of the underpass suddenly freeze frame in front of me and I was unable to even react. Next thing I knew I was sitting off the road, someone was asking me if I could stand, lights were flashing. I tried to get up and my right leg just collapsed under me. I had a glimpse of the scooter on its side up the road a bit, and the ambulance crew had arrived and were administering oxygen and doing whatever they had to do on my way to New York Presbyterian on East 68th Street.
Cat scans, X-rays and MRIs all indicated that I had head injuries (concussion with light bleeding inter cranial), a fractured tibia on the right leg with a 3″ hole right into the ligaments surrounding the cap, a pretty badly beaten up left leg which was colored black from the knee to the hip and was forming the mother of all hematomas, and some serious road rash on my right shoulder. Very strange.
You should know that I have outgrown my days of riding with no protection and had a high quality helmet and an armored riding jacket and gloves. The helmet got pretty badly banged up but probably saved my life as the head injuries which lingered for a few days eventually healed leaving me with fewer headaches and really painful legs. The jacket showed no damage to the right shoulder so I’m totally confused as to how I got such a nasty road rash there, but what the H.
I spent 10 days in the hospital and was transferred to St Charles Rehab in Port Jefferson out on Long Island. My significant other, Trisha, lives on Long Island and I was being prepared to eventually be released to her care. Seven days at St. Charles learning to walk, stand up and sit down, and other pretty necessary activities left me wanting to get out and eventually I was folded into a car and taken to Trisha’s house in Huntington. I’ve been there most of the time ever since.
She has admirably put up with my fussyness, complaining and downright disgust on being injured and not able to resume my normal life. But in fact I have made truly remarkable strides in just the past 8 days and was able to remove my right leg brace and replace it with a lightweight, movable knee brace which allows me to walk and drive, things I am able to do thanks to Victor, my rehab coach out in Huntington, who has been working with me and getting me back in shape.
I am resuming my schedule of returning to my loft in Soho during the week, but my usual manner was to commute on my Harley Road King, which I am putting off for the moment because I don’t have the leg strength to feel secure with it. But soon!! The Vespa was totaled according to the insurance company and I expect I will be looking for some kind of replacement eventually. Perhaps a less expensive Piaggio (the larger wheels attract me).
The bottom line is that my anxiety/ depression seems to have evaporated as I feel grateful for my good luck in surviving and in healing so quickly. Trisha and I are reinvigorated working in our business together and my curmudgeoniness seems to be intact, but less so than previously.
Amazing what a serious bang in the head can do for you.
Sat, Jun 4, 2011
The Big Picture