Hey Bill, how's your Dad?

Thanks for the thoughts about my dad through this situation. I'll fill you all in regarding this incident.

After eaning dinner with Lamont, Hossman(Rick), V-Man(Don) and a couple of their friends, my father and I went to Gillys Pub 44, The Highlander and then Main Street. We were headed back to my uncle's house in Palm Coast (35 minutes north of Daytona) around 1am Thursday night when a deer ran out in front of me. I nailed the brakes, then checked the mirror and my father's headlight was hitting the ground. We later found deer hair lodged into several places on his Yamaha V-Star, but did not really know that he actually hit a deer for two days since we had the bike towed from the scene.

The ambulance arrived and the paramedic checked my father for 10 seconds and screamed at his partner for a helecopter. They worked for a few minutes to keep him breathing as he was laboring to breath and had blood all over his face (part from road rash and part from his mouth). We then got word that the helecopter was unavailable! I pretty much figured that I was witnessing my father's last breath as they loaded him in the ambulance...they would not let me ride with him.

Well, he made it through that first day thank God! My quick Thursday to Sunday Daytona trip lasted the whole next week. I transported him back to Richmond yesterday (Saturday). The ten hour drive was quite difficult but he made it.

He is suffering from a broken #2 Vertebre, 4 broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung, broken left fibula (which he had pinned/screwed Thursday-3 days ago), multiple abrasions including many to his face and a head wound. There was/is risk of paralisis if he were to move his head the wrong way, so he is wearing a neck brace. He came very close to having a "halo" installed. It now looks like everything will heal itself in time. We are still concerned about the bruised brain since he is quite confused. The Neurologist says that his mental abilities should be back to normal in 2-3 months, but there is a small risk of extended issues. He was wearing a DOT helmit by the way.

What a week for him and me! My life had to be put on hold to be with him as much as possible as he could not understand anything that the doctors/nurses told him. He will be staying with me for a while to recover.

I'll tell you what, it took a lot out of me to hang out in the hospital for several hours each day then ride my bike 40 minutes back to my uncle's place. I never thought about the number of injured riders each year at bike week. I only paid attention to the number of deaths each year.

Hope I didn't bring anyone down too much with this story. I just kind of needed to tell the story for some reason. It was a really screwed up week.

Thanks to all for the emails, thoughts and prayers! I guess you just never know what's next in your life.

Bill Taylor