Yay! We got in a bike crash! It was very fun, and I got to ride in an
ambulance for the first time! What happened is that we were going down a
hill when it was really dark, and it had been raining all day. My
companion saw a pile of leaves that covered the entire sidewalk and
thought it would be fine to go through them. I was maybe 15-20 feet
behind him, so I couldn't see it. He hit the leaves and started to
slide, and I was right behind him. He went down first, hit the ground
hard, and started to slide. I hit the ground right after him on my right
side, rolled onto my feet and walked over to him. It was probably that
roll that saved me, because when I got to him, he was laying on the
ground with his head bleeding. And both his hands. And his ear. I
started checking to see if he was okay, and two people showed up with
some paper towels for his head. They started asking questions, and then
we found out that he had lost a lot of his recent memory. While I was
calling our mission nurse, they called an ambulance. The nurse showed up
right before the ambulance did, and she fought them on taking him to
the hospital, because she said it would be too expensive for the
ambulance. They said they had to take him rather than her because he was
confused and couldn't make his own choices. So, I got to ride in the
ambulance with him. When we got to the hospital, they made me wait
outside, so I found the mission nurse and sat with her and her husband.
Eventually, we got to go in and see him. Elder Root (the mission nurse's
husband) and I gave him a blessing. Shortly after that, he started to
regain his memory. I had forgotten my camera, so not many pictures from
it. Our mission president got a whole bunch of pictures when he got
there, but he never sent them to us. When he was released, he had cuts
on his hands, a bloody bald spot on his head, a really cut up ear, a cut
shoulder, and a broken collarbone. My sum total of injuries from the
exact same type of crash about a half second after his: A bruise on the
inside of my left calf from my own shoe, a mid-sized cut on my right
knee, and an 8 inch long bruise on my right hip. Not much for me. He has
to wear a sling for a while, and might go home if our visit to the
orthopedic surgeon says he needs surgery. He'd be slightly peeved,
mostly because he only has 22 days left anyways. So I've been stuck in
the apartment with him, working on the area book. I think I'm going to
explode. Well, that's pretty much my big thing from the week. Until next
time!
Elder Rolph's head, 1 week from the accident
His helmet that he had borrowed just for that one day. We had forgotten
ours as we dropped off the car, and the other missionaries let us just
use theirs. Didn't even make it 24 hours before we had wrecked one of
them.
My pants after the accident. (Sorry mom, I didn't even make it out of my first area before I ruined some.)
Here's the crazy part: this is Elder Rolph's normal helmet. If he'd
been wearing this one, he probably wouldn't have made it nearly as well.
(Note the safety pin holding it together.)
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