Bikes, Wrecks, and Missionaries.

Saturday evening, I had the chance of responding unofficially to an Auto-Ped accident. This would be dispatched as a 1040 P-I a little later on. Although I didn't actually witness the accident, I got there very shortly after it had happened, and before any Police or Ambulance personnel were there. Being an EMT and having a LOVE for all things EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Needless to say I pulled over and quickly ran to the child laying on the street and established myself as an EMT. "I'm an EMT, What's going on here?" I stated while kneeling to the few people who had at this point surrounded the little boy who had been riding his bike across a busy street and been hit by a vehicle coming to a stop. "He's been hit by a car while riding his bike" a larger woman stated to me. "I'm a Paramedic" the woman also stated. "Great, How can I help you then?" I stated back to her. We began to work side by side for a while on the child, who had pinpoint pupils and a large lasceration on the back of his head. "I have a latex allergy, and no gloves" she stated, where upon I thought something along the lines of "Oh good hell woman, He's an 8 year old boy, How tainted could his blood really be?" and I held a clean towel pulled from an onlookers vehicle to his head with my bare hands while at the same time attempting to also keep C-Spine (An EMS acronym meaning head straight due to possible spinal injury.) He was about 8 years old, and had a backpack on, We removed the backpack so he could lye more comfortably and put a blanket over his torso. A few minutes later, we established what his name was and we were able to squeek a bit more information out of him aside from just moaning. Of course, It also wasn't long before a pile of onlookers showed up follwed by 4 police vehicles with gloves who then started taking eyewitness accounts of what happened. 2 bystanders established themselves as Dr's, But not what type, which allowed for us to continue what we were doing until the ambulance company arrived and took over for us. I hope this little guy ended up OK, Things seemed to be picking up as the ambulance took him to the hospital.

On another note, This got me thinking and reflecting on how much I used to enjoy riding a bike. Its been quite a while since I've jumped on a bike myslef, As a kid, my friends and I would bike to the local Wal Mart and into town all the time. It seems that from the time I turned 16 and on, I haven't really set foot on a bike much at all, With one BIG acception... I served an LDS Mission in the Middle-Eastern United Stated. You know, You've all seen them I'm sure, The 19-23 year old guys who ride their bikes Everywhere while wearing suits, white shirts and ties... We certainly know that we look really dorky while doing it, I had people point and laugh all the time, Didn't bother us much though.. As missionaries, our primary source of transportation was biking, We would often ride as much as 50 miles a day, Some areas were given cars, however we were only allowed to drive a certain amount of miles in a month, so bikes still seemed to be the primary source of transportation.

I thought I'd share a few funny stories with you from MY experiences on a bike during my LDS Mission. A quick note: "Mission's" are divided into large area's called "Zones" and then subdivided into area's called "Districts" and subdivided again into individual areas. One funny experience I had was with a guy we will call "Elder B" "Elder" is a title given by the Mormon church to all missionaries, Like "Bishop" Etc.. Elder B was transfered into a new area of the mission but he had previously been in all areas with cars and walking used as transportation, So we gathered as a district to build him a bike out of all the broken ones that had been left behind by previous missionaries. Upon completion of building him a nice bike out of parts and pieces we were all pretty happy and decided to go for a ride with Elder B to teach him how to ride a bike, As we all started to head down a large hill, I was shortly behind Elder B on my own bike and I watched him pull the LEFT hand brake, This handbrake is attached to the FRONT tire, Something we forgot to mention to him.. He went flying over the handle bars and into a pile of bushes, The sound of him screaming like a little girl had all of us chuckling, and those ahead turning around. Elder B had sprained both wrists while landing and was forced to learn how to again ride a bike while wearing a brace on both wrists.

Another story that makes me smile, is one where we had an overweight elder in our zone, who had twice fallen off his bike and made the Medics come and evaluate him. Everytime this happened he was faking injuries and found to have none, He was a very overweight elder and didn't want to be in a biking area because it obviously required lots of excercise. This result got him what wanted, but not completely, He had wanted a transfer out of a biking area and back into an area with a car, He did get transfered but he was transfered into an area that required the most excercise because it was purely a walking area, Downtown... After serving in this area for 6 months, He had lost plenty of weight and it was his time to go home.

These stories make me smile, I certainly have had my share of Missionary bike wrecks, Going over the handlebars and into an icy muddy puddle while attempting to ride in the snow, etc... The one thing sticks out most in my mind is how THIRSTY we got as missionaries riding bikes in the hot sun, So I hope that the next time you see LDS missionaries, Either out on thier bikes, or knocking on your door, That you will at least honk and wave, or offer them a cold glass of water, I can't even express how happy I always was to just get a honk and wave, or be offered a glass of cold water on a hot day!