Bionicle Man

Adopted cornishman Chris Cumming a.k.a Spicy, is down and out at the moment. After a regular training session down at The Track at Portreath, he binned it in the wind on the first jump of the third straight landing on his right arm and taking the full impact with it. This crash was a result of typical high Cornish wind, and not being from Kernow, Spicy has never really jumped in the high winds we experience in the South West (the real South West), and so has always been cautious with it, however after warming up with jumping the second straight he attempted the third, but the wind blew his front wheel out from under him. This has resulted in him fracturing his radial head (the elbow joint), not just in one place, into pieces and wrecking it completley. Initial x-rays showed the one break, so he was stuck into a sling and sent on his way told six weeks. Two weeks later on a routine check up further x-rays showed that Doctors had missed the fact it was in pieces and he was rushed into hospital for an operation that weekend. When interviewed Chris had this to say about his operation;

It didn't end up the simple pin job the docs were expecting. When they opened up my arm they found the radial head was in bits from four further fractures not identified by the x-rays. Basically damaged beyond repair, so they've removed it and replaced with an artificial spacer.

They also had to remove a huge piece of cartilage that had sheared off the base of the humerus because it was stopping me straightening my arm. Also damaged and lost quite a lot cartilage in and around the elbow.

Going to be out for a while with this one, if all goes well currently looking at three months before I can entertain riding a bike again. Bit of a difference from the early prognosis of stick it in a sling and you'll be fine in six weeks!

Ouch!

It seems that at the minute the Dirt Bike Supply team is going down like old people on an icy morning, what with Rich Pazz Holroyd also sitting on the sidelines healing up at the minute and recovering from a broken ankle.

News on Pazz is that he now has a clean bill of health after a few weeks of turmoil and threatening operations after having his cast off. When interviewed he had this to say;

After having my cast off and walking around i encountered a lot of pain, i was told that this would be normal so i just gritted my teeth an started my rehab with it. Two weeks later on my check up they said that what i was experiencing wasnt as normal as first thought.

After many x-rays and lots of manipulation of the ankle it was confirmed that i had diastasis of theankle, where because of the crash i had twisted, torn an wrecked muscles an ligaments, there was nothing holding the bones in place, so when i walked on the ankle the bones splayed out at the joint. Mmmmm nice hey?

So it was to be an operation or beause of my age i was young enough that it could heal itself. I was sent for a CT scan to see how bad the damgae was and i would then know, in the meantime i was told to carry on with rehab and use it as much as possible. Two weeks later i had the scan and then then the results with a rubber stamped clean bill of health, and told it would be painful for the next 6 to 9 months.

Id spent time doing all the excersises id been given and a few special ones from Coach Evans at Will Power SC, plus time in the pool and on excersise bikes so i that helped it a lot really.

Everyone at Dirt Bike Supply wishes Chris the speediest of recoveries and we will keep u updated as to ow he is doing. Check out his X-rays below