David Leon, a 55-year-old hailing from Germantown, Tennessee, was on tempo for an MTB private greatest one lovely Saturday in September. In coaching for the upcoming state mountain bike championship races, he was feeling sturdy as he pumped his manner by the second lap of a ten.8-mile loop in western Tennessee’s Herb Parsons State Park. Referred to as “Herbs” by the locals, the state park is a well-groomed, single-track, cross-country gem, thick with oak, maple and sycamore bushes and recognized for its fast-flowing, root-filled terrain. Simply as David hit the final quarter mile, he picked up appreciable pace because the path dipped down right into a small swooping “S” flip snaking by a collection of pine bushes.
As he turned straight into the afternoon solar, the sunshine that usually sparkles by the leafless bushes at the moment of yr became a momentary strobe mild obscuring his imaginative and prescient. He by no means noticed the tree, nor did he have time to brake. “My Garmin 520 knowledge mentioned I used to be touring at 14.1 mph — after which ZERO in a millisecond.” His brow and chest took the complete affect of the collision with the tree.
“It was fairly dangerous. I used to be out chilly,” David mentioned. “The 520 has a really distinctive incident alert beep — I bear in mind listening to it as soon as earlier than, throughout an abrupt cease on the path some years again. This time I feel I heard 5 or eight fading beeps, then I recall listening to my quack-quack cell phone ring from some distant place. It was a bit surreal.” Due to the severity of his concussion and accidents, he couldn’t transfer and was having extreme bother respiration, gasping for air and experiencing excruciating higher again ache.
As David slipped out and in of consciousness, his Garmin Edge 520 GPS biking laptop went by the preset emergency response protocol algorithm. Sensing that there was a sudden cease in ahead momentum, the Edge 520 Plus instantly initiated the Incident Detection function1, counting down 30 seconds with 30 audible beeps requesting the person to cancel the alert or the person’s emergency contact(s) shall be notified through textual content message and/or e-mail.
Seconds after the function accomplished the 30-second countdown, David’s spouse and daughter, his emergency contacts listed on his Garmin Join cell app, had been notified through textual content message of the incident. “I had by no means obtained this message, or any message like this from David. I knew it should be critical. I had no thought he had this function on his bike laptop,” mentioned David’s spouse Cheryl.
David’s daughter Victoria additionally obtained the textual content message after which instantly known as him many times with no response. Victoria mentioned, “The textual content message included a hyperlink to my dad’s actual GPS coordinates. I tapped the hyperlink and was instantly directed to his exact location on the path.” Victoria, at house eight miles from David’s location, jumped in her automobile and arrived 11 minutes later. Kneeling over her father, she shortly realized this was critical. “Having his GPS coordinates on my cell phone from his Garmin, which linked with my cell maps software, supplied me not solely the right roads to journey from house but in addition to the entry level by the woods to his location on the path. After calling 911, I used to be capable of ship the placement knowledge to the ambulance driver.”
A couple of minutes later, paramedics arrived and transported David by ambulance to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Collierville, Tennessee. His official prognosis was 4 displaced vertebral fractures, six displaced posterior rib fractures, extreme head trauma and concussion, and some different much less critical knee and leg accidents.
“Instantly after the accident, I awoke laying on my again, trying to open my eyes. However the sky by the tree cover would spin uncontrolled, then the again ache began, then I might try to open my eyes, and the sky would spin once more.” Dr. Jeff Dlabach, David’s long-time orthopedic surgeon, mentioned, “To interrupt your posterior ribs from a frontal affect takes an extreme quantity of drive. On this case, the bike crash was equal to a 50-mph automobile crash.”
David wears a Bell Tremendous 3R MIPS helmet, however his brow, face and chest took the majority of the affect, contributing to the severity of the accidents. “The helmet did its job and prevented what might have been deadly; it was simply an odd bike crash,” he mentioned. “As a facet word, in case you are an avid mountain biker or bike owner and certainly one of your mates has a nasty wreck, the primary query you at all times ask after ‘Are you OK?’ is ‘How’s the bike?!’ Effectively, my custom-built Niner RKT RDO didn’t get a scratch — nothing. She is sort of nice.”
After six weeks of intensive rehabilitation and encouragement by his physicians, David was again to mild coaching on the highway bike and coach. He says he’s decided to climb again to his earlier health stage and compete in some unspecified time in the future. Nonetheless, navigating round bushes on his mountain bike makes him a little bit nervous. He’s grateful to be on the highway to restoration, and he needs to take the chance to remind riders of the significance of getting a tool just like the Edge Plus in case of emergency. And as necessary as it’s to have the GPS system, David says, it’s equally necessary to recollect to maintain your emergency contacts up to date.
“With out that notification, who is aware of how lengthy I might have lain there? I occurred to be eight-and-a-half miles from house, and I’m unsure my daughter might have arrived any sooner,” David mentioned. “It might have been a lot worse.”
David’s mother can be grateful. See beneath for a duplicate of a postcard she despatched to the Garmin workplaces. (Picture shared with Sue Leon’s permission.)
1When paired with a suitable smartphone. For security and monitoring options necessities and limitations, see Garmin.com/security.
To assist David Leon get again to pre-accident efficiency ranges, Garmin supplied him a reduction code.
