ASM Training Saved My Friends Arm

It was a sunny day in Arizona and I was riding with a group of 8 members from my mc club.  We were riding on back roads in a very remote/rural area, and I was riding in the back, when I witnessed one of the bikes speed up and run between the two motorcycles at the front of the pack. To this day we still don’t know why this happened, maybe he blacked out, but he ended up colliding with one of the front bikes, causing a crash and everyone behind scrambling to avoid it.

Immediately my ASM training, that I had just taken 2 weeks prior, kicked in. I sprang into action and took control of the scene, and thankfully I had other riders there to help.  I sent someone to go move their truck and block the road to secure the safety of the scene. A fellow rider who had taken the training with me went to one crash victim who had a bad cut on his hand, but seemed okay. I tended to my other friend, who very visibly had two bones sticking about 2 ½ inches out of his arm.

I had someone else call 911 and I realized I needed to stabilize his broken arm. While people kept offering me tourniquets to put on his arm, I knew that this was going to be a long wait for help, and I could still feel a pulse in his wrist, so I declined and instead asked them to get me something I could use to support it. We didn’t have anything on hand. At first someone returned with the top of a saddle bag, but it was curved and not what I needed.  Then someone found a piece of wood in the back of the truck that worked perfect.

For the next 45 minutes we waited for an ambulance to arrive and I kept monitoring his pulse in his wrist. I had others bring me jackets and whatever they could to keep him warm and prevent him from going into shock. When an ambulance finally arrived, with a single volunteer EMT, they refused to transport him as they can only transport when there are 2 medics. The nearest hospital was over an hour away and did not have a trauma center.  The nearest hospital with a trauma center that was equipped to handle the injury, was over 2 hours away.

The EMT then called for a medevac helicopter, which was going to be another 30 minutes.  We loaded him into the truck and drove him to the volunteer firefighter headquarters where the helicopter met us. The helicopter flew him to UMC hospital, the nearest trauma center, while we waited for a police officer to arrive to take a report.  From the crash until the officer arrived was a total of 2 hours since there was only one deputy for the entire area.

At the hospital, my friend was rushed into surgery where there were 2 surgeons waiting to operate on him. The first surgeon wanted to amputate his arm at his elbow, but the second surgeon wanted to try to save it, being my friend was only 38 years old. They decided to try to save it and he ended up getting two plates, one at his wrist, and one at his elbow, and over 20 pins/screws in between. The surgery was a success.  While he has had some complications since, they were able to fix them, and he still has use of his right hand and arm. He is still able to roll a throttle and rides to this day.

I have always been a pretty confident person, and I had medical training before taking the ASM class, but I hadn’t used it in about 45 years. ASM training was very motorcycle specific, and when the crash occurred, everything I had just learned at the class kicked in. Prior to taking the class, I did not carry medical supplies on my bike, but thankfully I had them this day. I highly recommend this training! My friend has thanked me many times since the crash for making the right calls and helping to save his arm.

-Richard Novicelli