Somewhere in my web wanderings I came across information which stated brain injury is cumulative; one head injury predisposes you for the next. Each impact has the effect of increasing the severity of any subsequent head injury. I recently realized that I have experienced four hits in ten years. This is a record of each of those events.

Intersection of Trent and Fisher

The first impact was the result of bike accident which occurred at the intersection of Fisher Ave and Trent Street in Ottawa. I was eastbound on Trent and had stopped at the light on Fisher, intending to turn north and then make a short dogleg to reach the Experimental Farm Pathway that runs parallel to the East side of Fisher. The light changed, I advanced onto Fisher in the company of a number of other cyclists, one of them passed too close in front of me, clipped my wheel, and down I went, landing heavily on my left side.

I do not remember the exact date of this fall but am certain I was still living on Central Park Drive in the newly completed development. I moved from there to my current residence on 9/11 (yes that 9/11. I was moving the last of my things on that eventful morning and I can still remember the remarkable endless deep blue of the clear autumn sky). Since I lived on Central Park Drive from March of 2000 to September of 2011 the accident likely occurred in the summer of 2000. I experienced no notable injury but did land hard on my left side. I was wearing a protective bike helmet.

The second accident occurred in the same area. I was travelling west on the Experimental Farm Pathway and was approaching Fisher. At Fisher the pathway bends to the south and there is a long straight stretch before it terminates at the connection to Trent. I was pumped and honked down the length of this straight toward the distant terminus when I realized the pathway had changed. Instead of ending at Trent, as it once did, the pathway now passed Trent and continued further south along Fisher to a new crossing point (see the map illustration). I saw the Trent exit, realized much too late the pathway had been changed, jammed on the brakes in an attempt to make the turn toward Trent, and flipped the entire bike forward so that I once again landed on my left side with the bike falling atop me. I scraped a knee, dinged the helmet, and sustained some soft tissue bruising. The injuries were not serious. Despite this, I cancelled the rest of the ride and limped home.

I have no idea of the date of this accident. It clearly occurred after the Pathway modifications but I do not know when these took place. I had not cycled on this route for several years. I suspect this accident took place sometime between 2003 and 2006. After this event, I replaced my bike helmet. The interior pads were stinky and badly frayed. There was no apparent damage to the protective foam cushion or to the outer shell.

The last accident occurred on a pathway along the Gatineau River in Québec. In 1999 I started working for Compaq in Bell’s Corners and then won a promotion to the enterprise support group located in a facility on Boulevard de la Technologie in northern Gatineau. In 2003 Compaq was bought by HP and I was promoted into a Quality Assurance / Trainer position and relocated back to the facility in Bell’s Corners. In July 2006 I was promoted to staff a high end support group operating out of the Gatineau facility. Six months after I returned to work in Gatineau the decision was made to close the Québec facility and the entire team was transferred to a new site in Kanata, starting there in January 2007.

In the fall of 2006 I was cycling to work, heading north along the Gatineau River. The bicycle pathway crosses a small creek before it begins to climb away from the river. Just after the creek crossing I passed another cyclist making slow progress up the hill. I knew the route well having used it to get to work for several years. I quickly left the other cyclist behind, and stormed up the hill to the crest. Here the pathway crossed over a railway track before it dropped steeply down the embankment on the north side.

Gatineau River Bike Path

This was a crazy stretch of path. It went down at a 45 degree angle, leading straight into a reverse hairpin before it flattened out into a long downhill straight then curved back into the woods to continue the trek north. Climbing this grade on the southbound return trip was a real challenge. I knew I was in good shape when I could make it to the crest without needing to dismount. Going north was problematic. You had to descend while riding the brakes. If you carried any speed at all you would not make it through the reverse turn.

On the day of the accident, I was descending slowly, holding the bike in check with the brakes, travelling at the speed of a slow walk, when the bicycle shot out from under me and I crashed heavily on my left side. My next memory is of hearing a query from a passing cyclist, the same cyclist I had passed earlier by the bridge. He was standing above me offering to help me get up.

I clambered to my feet and thanked him for his help. I appeared to be OK. The bike was undamaged. I couldn’t understand how I had come to crash and spent a number of minutes searching for the cause. The pathway was littered with seed pods. These had a hard shell and a soft liquid interior. I suspect the front tire rolled over one of these seed pods, and the weight of the bike caused the seed pod to shoot out from underneath the tire. The tire and front wheel zipped to the right and I fell heavily on my left.

I didn’t think much of the fall at the time. I have no recollection of any after effects such as I experienced after the March 6th car accident. Now that I know more about head injury, I find myself wondering how long I was down on the ground before the other cyclist arrived on scene. Given my estimate of our relative speeds he would have arrived anywhere from thirty seconds to one minute after I fell. This implies that I was unconscious for that period.

I have no memory of any after effects from this fall. No nausea, no headache, no ringing in the ears, no loss of balance, no fatigue. When I dug out the helmet I wore on this day, I found it was badly damaged. A large section of the cushion material had been compressed and broken into several chunks by the impact (see the header image above). I had retired it after this incident and had completely forgotten about it.

Taking these three incidents together with the automobile accident it is evident I suffered four hits in ten years. I would judge the second event as being the worst of the four. None of the other three events resulted in lacerations, contusions, or any loss of blood. Yet the fourth impact, the March 6th automobile accident, has had the greatest negative impact. Given what I have learned about head injury, I now believe it likely that the fall associated with the third event may have played some role in the severity of the automobile injury.