One of my girlfriends, Mirelle, was on her way home from work Monday night, and saw a motorcyclist hit the center divide on the 202 freeway. She shared this harrowing story later on Facebook.
What a crazy night! I'm driving home from Glendale and on the 202. I happen to look in my mirror and see this motorcycle hit the center divider. He kind of bounced off back into it and I noticed his arm kind of went limp. I slowed down since he started going across a couple Lanes of traffic. I slowed down and got behind them of my four way flashers on to make sure nobody hit him. Then I noticed there was blood all over my car so I followed him for about a mile we exited off the 202 on to the Gilbert exit. He made it up on the gravel and just fell over. Add to lift the back of a motorcycle off of his foot so he could move. Then I checked his arm and it was barely hanging on with a tendon and maybe even a little bit of bone. As people start showing up, I asked for a towel or something to be able to apply direct pressure. I sat with him, held his uninjured hand, and just talked him. If I got too far from him, he would ask where lime green girl was since I was wearing a green shirt. I just reassured him everything was going to be okay. As the paramedics were splinting his arm, I just had him focus on me so he wasn't looking at what was left of his arm. He's most likely going to lose his arm. I'm thankful for my medical training and able to handle situations like that to help save his life. He lost a lot of blood and was going into shock. The paramedics were awesome!
Here's today's wonderful UPDATE!
I got to visit my new friend, Dirk, who was involved in the motorcycle accident. They saved his arm! He has feeling in all of his fingers, and is in such amazing spirits. I picked him up a stuffed hippo and put a lime green shirt on it because he would ask if "lime green girl" was still with him. He laughed instantly when he saw the shirt on the hippo. I was told he was lucky I knew what to do or he would have bled out. He does have another surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning. He's going to have to have at least 3 more.