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some dismal news about Steve Worcester

Jeff Jilg

Jeff Jilg

Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
1,287
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5
Location
Austin, TX
Website
www.woodturner.org
I have just received dismal news about our volunteer co-moderator Steve Worcester. Steve is an avid bicyclist, and trains all the time. He just took a nasty fall yesterday and is still in the hospital. The accident included facial fractures and he is currently in intensive care as of 7:00 pm this evening. :( :(

For those of you who haven't met Steve in person, he is a very friendly guy. I don't think he has a bad bone in him. I received the accident and hospital information from Lynn Blanchard who is the president of the DAW (Dallas Area Woodturners).

Steve has been moderating this forum for a lot longer than I have - always on a volunteer basis.
 
Steve's Recovery

Would you be kind enough to get someone to give us all a daily update on his recovery and release from the hospital? He is too good a man for this terrible thing to have overtaken him on his bike. Hopefully he was wearing his helmet! Please pass my best wishes for a full and speedy recovery! Phil
 
Thank you for letting us know, Jeff. If you get the chance, please pass along my wish for his comfort and speedy healing.

Mark
 
Please pass along my prayers as well. I've enjoyed watching him demonstrate and have purchases some of his sanding supplies as well. he is definitely a nice guy and I could never talk bad about a fellow cyclist.
 
Hoping and praying for a speedy and full recovery. Anyone visiting with Steve please give him our best wishes!

Thanks for the heads up Jeff!

Wilford
 
Steve is still in Intensive Care, and recovering slightly. He is still in bad shape though. Instead of posting daily content here I'll send a daily email to anyone who is interested. This is is a woodturning forum afterall.
 
Daily update

Jeff,

Yes, this is a woodturning forum - which means that it is about whatever woodturners wish to chat about. And I am sure that a strong majority would appreciate a daily update from someone in touch with the situation, rather than having to rely on a network of e-mails. This way we all get the news "equally" and possible misinformation is eliminated.

Woodturners care about Steve's condition and wish him the speediest of recoveries, so I respectfully disagree with you and do hereby request that you daily update our community about Steve's progress.
 
I Agree!

I agree! I have never met Steve, but feel like I know him from my woodturning involvement, so I have been checking this thread daily. Please continue the thread. This site is about Woodturners! and their work.

JimQ
 
Ed Moore said:
Jeff,
Woodturners care about Steve's condition and wish him the speediest of recoveries, so I respectfully disagree with you and do hereby request that you daily update our community about Steve's progress.
Click to expand...

I completly agree with Ed.
 
Although I'm a very new member to the forum and a beginning turner, I'm also a biker, and I'd also like to hear how a fellow biker is doing....

Thanks for letting us know how he is, and I'll be praying for a speedy recovery.
 
status as of 4pm Wednesday

Steve's current status as of 4pm Wednesday is that he had an MRI and has no detectable spinal damage (good news). He is talking more, although he is on strong pain killers. He originally had very bad headaches and those are slightly better. Probably from the swelling and trauma. But there is still no improvement in his left arm.....and no answers why! :(

Still no flowers or cards allowed....visitors limited to 2 at a time...3 times a day. Once late morning, early afternoon and evening. He's at Parkland Hospital, Dallas, Texas. Second floor, IC unit B, station 2.

He goes to surgery Thursday at noon for his fractured sinus area, that will put him in IC again for a day or so.

(Sorry this news is so late. I'm doing the 55-60 hour thing at work.)
 
I do not have any details on the accident. Probably Steve will post some when he gets back home at some point.

Not much news today. He was scheduled for surgery today, but it is rescheduled for tomorrow. That will put him back in IC for recovery. They indicated that he is feeling better overall but is still in the hospital.
 
Steve had his sinus surgery on Friday. As of Saturday he is up and walking the halls. He is in Room 703 at Parkland and can now take visitors and probably phone calls. His wife Gina indicated that Steve would like to see some new faces for a change. So he must be feeling a little bit better.
 
Sunday update on Steve.

He is up and walking around now. He will have a neck brace for 4-6 months to help heal the fractured C1 vertebrae. Both arms are working great now, but not up to full strength.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Update from the horse

Thanks to all of you that have had myself and my family in your thoughts and prayers over the last week +.

It was one of those freak accidents, I went over the front of the bars on my mountain bike, solo. The front brake cable (center pull) caught on the tire and vaulted me without warning. Only about 100 yards from home, so I walked back (somehow).
I was transferred that night to Parkland Memorial in Dallas because they are a level 1 trauma hospital, with a Neural ICU, where I layed for three days with constant care, and early morning trips to CAT scans. After the swelling subsided enough, they detected several facial, nasal, and other skull fractures, one needing surgery for an internal nasal fracture. (Something about the same air would run over the mucous membranes as the brain, and you can't have that happen).
But the stickler is for the cracked C1 vert. which means I will also be wearing a collar for about 6 months and walk slowly and cautiously!
Right now, I feel I am one of the luckiest people on earth. I should be out in a few days and back in the office in a few weeks.
I won't be able to turn for awhile, or cycle for 6+ weeks (at least outside) but I am still alive, thanks to the hard work and dedication of some of the best doctors and nurses on earth and pharmacology that allowed me to endure. And a wife who spent several nights sleeping in a chair next to me.

Thank you all for you support - Steve
 
Steve, my sympathies to you and your wife. (I know what mine went through when I was in the hospital.) Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

JimQ
Glendale, AZ
 
You are indeed very lucky. C1 can be curtains, as you no doubt know. Walking about with Cervical spine injuries is a frightening proposition. I've had to cajole at least three people into allowing me to collar them after walking about, only to have them end up in halos. Sounds like yours is stable. Follow orders and mend.

Oh yes, commercial if I might. Please, from one who might have to come after you, take a cell phone with you while you bike, hike, snowmobile, or any time you're off the beaten path. I don't even walk my own woods without one. They have those locaters in them now, and you don't have to risk your life by hauling yourself out, just hit the magic buttons. I'd much rather collar, board and carry, even at a distance, than bag someone who almost made it out on his own.
 
Steve,

Great news (relatively speaking, of course). ;)

Please follow your doctors' conservative advice and give yourself the maximum leeway to heal properly and fully; a few months of inconvenience now is far better than years of pain and disability later.

Mark Mandell
 
Glad to hear you're on the mend Steve.

I've never broken anything in my falls, but have had similar instances. I had a Kudzu vine grab a handlebar near the house, and it put me on the ground immediately. Luckily for me, it wasn't an endo... The other one was my own stupid fault, shoulda' never chased that cat through the bushes. Never realized how close I came to a bad accident.

I'll continue to remember you in my prayers, that your injuries will heal with no further complications.

Take care,
 
Steve is now released from the hospital and recuperating at home. He gets to wear the C collar for 8 weeks. Can't drive for 8 weeks either.

If it was me, that thing would be driving me nuts already. Can't imagine wearing it for 2 months. :p
 
Welcome home, Steve. I'm glad that you were able to walk out of the hospital under your own steam--that's a good sign! Just take it easy and follow orders, something that I know is difficult to do, especially when you start to feel like new.

Joe
 
Steve! I'm glad it wasn't worse bud, but I still feel for you. I've been out of town for a month or so and only had the initial bit of news, just now I saw the update you posted.

WOW. How does a brake cable get caught up in a wheel? Having a hard time picturing that. Would you give a better description please, I'd like to make sure that can't happen to me, too.

Also, hate to ask this, but - helmet? I crashed head first into a car at 30mph on my bike a few years ago - helmet trashed but skull intact. Sinuses, however, not so great. Compression of disc between C4 and C5 though.

Glad to hear you'll heal up well. Hope the pain ends soon.
 
Mike Schwing said:
WOW. How does a brake cable get caught up in a wheel? Having a hard time picturing that.
Click to expand...
Mike! Welcome back.
It was an older mountain bike with centerpull (cantilever) brakes. I had the cable from the levels disconnected because I was working on the stem. Left the cable that goes across the tire connected (My wife jokes to everyone that we are suing the mechanic. Then she points to me.) Eventually, the brakes and cable fall down and act as if you have thrown a broomstick in the spokes. No warning, just wham!

Mike Schwing said:
Also, hate to ask this, but - helmet?
Click to expand...
No helmet. Even though I am a helmet zealot, I "was just going down the block". Interesting to note though that it may not have made much difference because of the severity of the crash. Has several conversations with Neurosurgeons about that, maybe trying to justify my own stupidity. It happened so fast I never even broke my fall (would have happily traded for a broken collar bone!). Well I did break the fall with my face. The surgeons say that they see more facial and less spinal injury with un-helmeted cyclists and more spinal and less facial with helmet crashes. Even though, I will wear my helmet diligently when allowed back on the bike, about 6 weeks.
 
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