photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Tom E | profile | all galleries >> Tom's Brain Surgery -- CAUTION: GORY PICTURES tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Tom's Brain Surgery -- CAUTION: GORY PICTURES

Epidural hematoma, May 8, 2003.

An artery was bleeding inside my cracked skull after a bicycle accident sustained on a group ride. My helmet saved my life. The CAT scans are about 45 minutes after impact and show the size of the growing blood clot. The surgery to remove it started less than two hours after the accident and lasted three hours. If I hadn't gone directly to a level 1 trauma center emergency room, I'd be dead. Thanks to Dr. Picker and Dr. Sakabu at St. Johns Mercy in St. Louis, and a lot of other people, I'm now recovering fine and riding the bike again. Also thanks to the doctors for taking and giving me these pictures.

Get those head injuries checked out, even if it's just a bump.

For post-surgery pics of my head all stapled-up, see http://www.pbase.com/terbo/postop

Oh yeah, I broke my collarbone too.

[update, november 19 2003] I only did two more races in 2003, the OreToShore 48-mile off-road race in Michigan in August, and the 12-hour race in Kansas City in September. Both went fine but I'm out of shape due to some bad riding habits developed during my break this summer. I'm getting off-road a lot this fall and looking forward to racing road and mountain again in 2004, but with a little more perspective on everything. I tried to post the best shots out of the 40 or so pictures I got from the doctor. If you want to see the ones I haven't put up, email me.

For more info or if you'd like to use these pictures, please email tome at racoon dot com (note funny spelling of raccoon). I'm almost certain I won't mind, but it's always nice to know who's looking at my brain.
19 CAT scans
19 CAT scans
18 first incision
18 first incision
25 detach scalp
25 detach scalp
28 cracked skull
28 cracked skull
33 bone saw
33 bone saw
37 hematoma
37 hematoma
39 hematoma
39 hematoma
43 cleaned-up
43 cleaned-up
46 cracked skull inside
46 cracked skull inside
47 cracked skull outside
47 cracked skull outside
53 Ti fasteners
53 Ti fasteners
56 humpty dumpty
56 humpty dumpty
more operation pics
:: more operation pics ::