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Latest Update on Steve Ikin.

22 August       from Chris Neil
I have just been up to visit Steve, he is in good spirits and there has been great improvement, Steve is sitting up in bed and talking, Kerry went back to work today and Steve's mother is still with him.
Steve can now have visitors (see Kerry's email below) and is healing well.
Some of Steve's conversations are at times a little vague or disjointed but he is definately recognising people and asked me about racing, he wants to go to the Grafton - Inverell next month !! then he clarified that with, "only to watch".
When I was there his doctor explained that he was just about finished with him as far as his physical injuries are concerned and that shortly he would be transfered to the Head clinic, where he would be assessed further with regard to any damage associated with the brain.
The doctor explained this could be at least 2 months of tests and treatment all conducted in house, so Steve will be a resident for some time yet.
Official visiting hours are between Noon and 2pm and 4pm and 8pm but you can virtually go any time during the day,
Chris Neal
Hello everyone
Am emailing from work, because I am having problems with Steve's
computer.  Consequently I have hardly anyone's email address.
Steve can have visitors, but he still gets tired quickly.  He can have
visitors till up to 8pm at night, but he usually is looking to get to
sleep by responsibility so it would be great if you visit if you come up before
then.
He is in Ward 2A.
He would love people to come and visit.
Kerry Sparshott
 

16th August
Hello everyone
Sorry I haven’t let you know what is happening for a while, but I have been having problems with the computer mouse.

Steve has finally (after 12 days) left intensive care. He has been moved to a high dependency ward – mainly because the doctors feel he is trying to escape from the bed! I know I mentioned that as soon as he was on a ward I would let you all know so you could come and see him, but unfortunately he is still nowhere near being able to have visitors. I (and his mum) have spoken to the doctors and nurses who say it will be 1 to 3 weeks before they would expect Steve to be able to have visitors.  But please be assured as soon as it is possible I will let you know and Steve would love to see you all.  It is Steve’s birthday on Thursday and I had hoped people would be able to visit but at this stage it doesn’t look possible.

Thank you to everyone who has sent an email, card or phoned with your support.  They will all get to Steve.  I was able to take a few cards up today and show him, but think I will need to show them to him in a few days as he may forget.  You have no idea how much Steve will appreciate all your messages and I am sure he will overwhelmed as I have been.

He is now off all sedation, and only on panadol for pain relief.  He is still constantly trying to get out of bed and tries to pull himself up using either the sides of the beds of else he will put his arms around my neck and then try to pull himself up.  I feel like everytime he does something we have to stop him and he must be getting fed up with us, but we try to explain that he has hurt his back, neck, ribs, jaw, etc and he need to stay in bed for a while yet.  Each day he is improving.  Today he would respond everytime we asked him a question.  When I told him it was time for me to go home, he said ‘I am coming too’ and of course it upset me to have to say sorry but you have to stay there.

When the nurse was asking us if the doctors had told us the extent of Steve’s injury, Steve quickly said ‘not really’, so he is obviously trying to understand what has happened. When I now ask him does he know he is in hospital he usually says yet.  His physio, Fiona, was telling him she does triathlons and she asked him what sort of bike he has and he said ‘Avanti’
We did make out today that he is concerned with his work at Sicame and was saying there is still a lot of work for him, and it is very complex. I have told him that it will still be there when he gets out of hospital, not that I am expecting Steve to wait until he is out of hospital before he starts asking for his laptop. 
I am probably making it sound like he is talking just like normal and you may wonder why you can’t visit.  He is still very sick and, as you know has many fractures.  Also he is still not really aware of what is going on and when he talks it is one/two words and is very difficult to understand.

Also the paramedics that attended him popped in last night to see him.  They said they are astounded he is still alive.  They were sure he wasn’t going to make it.  Of course his mum and I were so grateful to them and just saying thank you seemed so inadequate.
Will keep you informed as to when you can come and visit.
Love Kerry and Steve

16th August
Guys and Girls, text from Vince 6pm last night,

"Steve is out of icu and on a ward. He's awake and healing. Access is still limited at this stage. Kerry best point of reference"

I rang Kerry this morning and Steve is still in a fair amount of pain but is talking and has limited movement in his limbs currantly.
Steve is breathing by himself (no tubes !!) and is on some sedatives so he can sleep, Kerry is with him every day and they are restricting visitors.
Kerry said she will let us know when he will be strong enough to recieve visitors possiably within the next 2 weeks,

I spoke to a cyclist at Park road last Saturday whose friend was running on Laurel ave. when Steve passed him on the bike, he heard the crash and ran back to Steve and stayed with him untill the Ambulance arrived (which was 20 mins!).
The runner thought Steve was deceased as a result of the accident as he was not breathing, he only found out last week that Steve was still alive !!!

So how tough is this boy !!!!
 
Chris Neal

12th August
 Hi everyone
 just wanted to shoot out a short note to update on Steve.
 The operation on his neck went well. The surgeons removed a disc in his
 neck and fused two vertebrae together. There will be only about a 5%
 reduction in movement in Steve's neck, however it will greatly improve
 the protection for his spinal cord ..... good deal!
 Steve has started to breath on his own now and the sedative level has
 been reduced. Yesterday he tried to talk, although with his sore throat
 from the tubes that had been down there and with broken ribs etc. - this
 was very difficult.
 Kerry was thinking that after all her selfless efforts to be by his
 side, he would say something like "I love you" or, "lets get married" or
 something like that. But not our Steve ... hardcore to the end, Kerry
 said that the first muffled words that she could make out were .... " I
 want to do the Airport ride".
 Steve remains in the ICU and will be there still for the short term. The
 indications are that he is improving all the time, however it is still
 early days. Fingers crossed he will be on the ward soon, hopefully
 before next Thursday, the 18th - Steve's 49th Birthday.

Kerry has again said that the support and e-mails has been great. She
holds copies of them all so Steve can read then all later.
 I will of course update when I know more
 Stay Safe
 Vince
8th August
Hello everyone

 He is still in ICU and not much has really changed. He is quite a bit aware today. It is a bit distressing when he reaches for the breathing tube, but luckily (or not) we are all stronger than him and are able to put his hand back down and try to reassure him that it is okay. I keep telling him that this is only temporary and he just has to stay like this for a few days.  I know he probably doesn’t know what is going on, but I worry that he is lying there thinking he is going to stay like that.

 All the cuts on his face are healing really well.  Vince was there on the night of the accident – For those who don’t know there was a nurse who was a cyclist who went through Steve’s mobile and recognized Vince’s name and that is how they identified Steve. They contacted Vince and said who owned the phone, so Vince very kindly rushed straight to the hospital and helped them to contact me. Vince popped up tonight, and as he was there on the night the accident happened, we thought it would be good for him to come in and he could see the change and let everyone know that he has seen Steve and he is looking a bit better.  I would love to be able to sneak everyone in, but I am sure Steve would rather you see him when he is feeling a bit better.  As soon as Vince came in and said hello Steve opened his eyes straight away! Vince has been absolutely wonderful in his support (as has everyone) and has been very kind to Steve’s mum and his sister. When the accident happened I couldn’t ring his mother so Vince did this for me and I am very grateful to him for doing that. I know it would have been difficult for him to pass the message onto Steve’s mum and sister but he was fantastic and of course they think he is absolutely wonderful for helping out.

 We are now not sure about the surgery on Wednesday.  They said today that they may decide not to operate. If they do that they may also decide to put in a tracheotomy (I think that is how it is spelt) soon which, even though he would be left with a scar, we would be happier about because then they can wake him up and he won’t feel like he is choking.  I think once he wakes up and they can take him off the breathing equipment he will be able to go to a ward – so that could end up happening in a couple of days.

 If they do decide to operate he may not be woken up until maybe the weekend, but each day he is asleep he does not feel any pain.

 The nurse today asked him to blink once for yes and twice for no. She then asked him if he was in any pain, he blinked twice but there was just a little bit longer pause then we would have liked so we can’t be sure that he was answering us – but I like to think he was and is not feeling any pain.  He is still on morphine constantly and each time you go in (we are experts at reading all the machines now) they change his dose.  Not sure why. One nurse came in and put it up and said may as well make him happy whilst he is there.  I said I hope once he isn’t discharged I am not going to be forced to be making drug deals at West End for him!

 The doctors also seem to be less concerned about the lack of oxygen. They said his movements are a good sign and that he is ‘able to obey commands’ also (eg wiggle your toes, blink your eyes, etc. When he was admitted they did a scan, but they said they are never really confident until they wake them up.

 Anyway I don’t have much news – which is probably good.  Each time he opens his eyes I tell him that everyone has been asking about him and that you are all keen to come and visit him when he is in the ward. I have printed out all your emails to him to give to him when he is feeling better.

 Chris Neal – could you forward this onto Yvonne and Byron, Jo Formosa, and I am sure there are plenty more people I don’t have an email address for so please let them know as well.  Oh also Paul Pengilly.  Sorry for putting in a personal message here for Yvonne and Byron but I don’t have your email address – thank you so much for the flowers and card.  Steve (and I) are so grateful for your message of support and for the flowers to cheer me, his mum and his sister up at home.  I will be showing Steve the card as soon as he is feeling okay.Also someone left some chocolates on the doorstep.  I don’t know who it was as the card was sealed, but thank you very much and Steve will love them and we will find out who they were from when he is put into a ward into the hospital.If anything signicant happens I will email you again, but at this stage I probably won’t have much news till later in the week.
Love Kerry and Steve

 7th August
He is doing quite well today.  He is still in ICU and we expect that he will stay there for a few days yet.  They did an MRI yesterday to look at his spine and neck and he has moved his arms and legs so that is a relief to both us and the doctors.  I had thought I had seen his legs move, but then started to think I was imaging it, and the doctors looked at me quite skeptical when I said I had seen it.  They expect to operate again on Wednesday.  We are taking that as a good sign that they are not insisting on operating immediately. For his neck they said that he has snapped a ligament and they are going to repair that with a plate.  In relation to his back they said they are going to manage that conservatively, and I think they mentioned putting a plate in as well.  Sorry if I seem a bit vague, but I do listen when they tell me, but then later I appear to get the message confused!

 He had surgery on Friday to repair his jaw, the cuts on his face and his left knee.  His jaw was broken in two places and that has now been wired together. He had quite a large cut on his left knee and initially they had just planned to clean it out during surgery and come back to fix it a few days later. But I assume (sorry I am confused with what they did again!) they looked at it in surgery and it wasn’t as bad as they thought so they fixed it then.  They sewed up the cuts on his face as well.  On the right hand side is where all of the cuts are.  The left hand side there is not a mark on it. But they have all been fixed now and I expect him to look as good as ever.  There is only one large cut on his forehead, and the rest were smaller cuts. Apart from those marks on his body and a little bit of bruising around his neck and ribs you would never know he has had such a serious accident.

 He still has the breathing tube in and we don’t know when this will be able to come out – I expect we have to wait until this comes out before he leave ICU.  They tried to wake him up a little bit the other day but he started moving around too much (but at least we, and the doctor, got to really see his legs move). Apparently they often start to think they are choking when they wake up a bit and that is why they get restless and start trying to pull out the breathing tube. So he was put back to sleep. We are really anxious for him to wake up and be able to talk to him, reassure him and tell him how much we love him, but we know that whilst he is asleep he is getting better and not feeling any of the pain.  Also with all the fractured ribs he has they say it will be extremely painful for him to breathe on his own so they want to keep it in – but as you would understand we are worried that he will be distressed waking up feeling that he is choking.

 Today they reduced his sedation a bit, so several times when we would go into the room and speak to him he would open his eyes.  I know he probably doesn’t know what we are saying, but we hope he recognizes our voices and that he feels a bit re-assured.  They said they might reduce the sedation a bit more tomorrow so hopefully he will react even more to us.  But having said that if they are operating on Wednesday they don’t want to wake him fully and then say – ooops time for surgery we are just putting you back to sleep – wouldn’t be very fair. At least once he wakes up we can find out the final issue of what effect the low oxygen for 20 minutes has had. Hopefully none, but we will wait and see, so please keep all your fingers crossed.

 If you have rung and I haven’t called you back, please don’t feel that your calls are unwelcomed.  I do get the messages but then can’t remember who I have spoken to or who I haven’t.  We can’t have the phones on when we are in ICU so you will usually get message bank.  We are home by 8.00/8.30 at night, so if you wanted to speak to me you can call then, or in the morning before 10am, or keep trying during the day and you might catch me when I have just popped out of ICU for a break. I don’t mind at all how many times you call.

 His sister Carol is here and will be able to stay at least until Wednesday. His mum is here as well and will stay for a while yet.

 Unfortunately there are no visitors allowed in ICU.  I was able to sneak someone in the other day as I knew the nurse had just ducked out, but don’t expect that I would be able to sneak anyone else in.  I will pass on all your good wishes to Steve and he will definitely be expecting lots of visitors once he is placed in the ward.

 Also thank you all for you offers of help to me – it is really appreciated and I don’t know how I could ever repay you all for your kindness.

Love Kerry (& Steve)

Update 5/8/05
Steve had is operation last night to repair his jaw in the hope that he would be able to breath by himself, he is still in the induced coma but there is arm and leg movement so things are looking a little more positive.
Steve had a scan today to try and determine if there is any brain damage, no news on this yet.
Steve's mum and sister flew in from Adelaide this afternoon, Vince picked them up from the Airport.
Chris
Update 4/8/05
Some more news on Steve, the accident was on Laurel ave. Chelmer (I thought the safest piece of cycling road in Brisbane!).
Steve's injuries include, both collar bones broken, a badly crushed chest with 6-7 shattered ribs, and a smashed jaw, the latter injuries are why he is being kept unconscious as he cant breath by himself.
Steve is having an operation this afternoon to repair the jaw to allow him to breath normally.
Kerry states Steve is stable and will be in ICU for several days,
I have been getting information off Rob Battle and Vince McLaughlin, if you know these people and need more information feel free to ring them or myself.
I have only had contact with Kerry via text messages and I will give here a few more days before I ring,
Chris Neil.

Comments made by some brainless twit who calls himself the Spoonman on triple M

Now I may be just a dumb car driver but how come cyclists don't have to be registered or pay any kind of insurances to use the roads. How someone very select section of the community (cyclists) pay nothing for the right to scratch or dint your cay or take out your side mirror as they skim through lanes.

Cyclists don't have to take any kind of responsibility to the damage they might do to your car as they are totally anonymous ,have no insurance & no third party property , So if a cyclist hits you effetely for insurance purposes it's your fault no matter what actually happened & no rego means they can break every road rule there is when they like , go through red light camera you name it

Everyone else who uses the road has to pay something for the privilege, everyone else has to be identifiable by rego or license & everyone else has to have  insurance & everyone else has to be accountable when they break the road rules ,Unless you ride a vehicle called a push bike , the road using equivalent of a royal family I recond.

Bloody Free Loaders     The spoonman   Allis (The dickhead)

From Ben Wilson BQ manager

Now I may be just a dumb car driver [BQ Manager] YEP but how come cyclists don't have to be registered or pay any kind of insurances to use the roads.[BQ Manager]  MANY DO ACTUALLY  How someone very select section of the community (cyclists) pay nothing for the right to scratch or dint your cay or take out your side mirror as they skim through lanes.[BQ Manager] AS IF PEOPLE WHO DENT YOUR CAR IN A CAR PARK HANG AROUND TO PAY!

Cyclists don't have to take any kind of responsibility to the damage they might do to your car [BQ Manager] EXCEPT THEY ARE LIKELY TO HURT THEMSELVES BADLY AND DONT INTEND TO DAMAGE CARS as they are totally anomamus [BQ Manager] AS ARE PEDESTRIANS AND 5% OF CAR DRIVERS WHO ARE ACTUALLY DRIVING UNREGISTERED/UNLICENSED ,have no insurance & no third party property[BQ Manager]  WELL 5000 BQ MEMBERS DO AND ABOUT THE SAME CYCLING QLD MEMBERS DO AND ABOUT THE SAME NUMBER OF TRIATHLON QLD DO...  , So if a cyclist hits you effetely for insurance purposes it's your fault no matter what actually happened & no rego means they can break every road rule there is when they like , go through red light camera you name it[BQ Manager]  AND GET KILLED, OR GET BOOKED FOR RIDING WITH DUE CARE AND BE FINED

Everyone else who uses the road has to pay something for the privilege[BQ Manager]  AS IF THE 20% OF PEOPLE IN WORK CARS ARE PAYING ANYTHING , everyone else has to be identifiable by rego or license[BQ Manager]  NO BIKES IN ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD APART FROM SWITZERLAND PAY REGO, AND THE SWISS PAY $7 FOR A SERVICE THAT COSTS THE GOVERNMENT $200! DO WE WANT THIS? 'D BE ALL FOR IT (IT INCLUDES MAPS, INSURANCE, WORK COVER, EVEN BIKE THEFT INSURANCE!)  & everyone else[BQ Manager]  NO THEY DON'T!  has to have  insurency & everyone else has to be accountable when they break the road rules [BQ Manager] CRAP - WE WORK ON A BUSY ROAD AND COULD 'BOOK' A THOUSAND CARS A DAY - THE 'CATCH' RATE WOULD BE ONE IN 10,000 LAWBREAKERS! ,Unless you ride a vehicle called a push bike , the road using equivalent of a royal family I recond.
[BQ Manager] 

CAR REGO PAYS FOR 1/3 OF ROAD COSTS - THE REST COMES FROM FED, COUNCILS AND TAXES THAT EVERYONE PAYS, INCLUDING CYCLISTS. Most cyclists have cars, registered, but sitting at home as they use their bikes! Bikes cause no pollution, no noise, no road damage and no massive injuries to people. Smart countries encourage bikes. Smart countries (like the Dutch and Swiss) have less obesity and fewer heart problems in their community - saving $millions in health costs. Dumb countries and dumb people criticise cycling.

SPOONMAN IS A SAD LOSER - HE OUGHT TO GET A LIFE AND A BIKE !! Everyone else is - bikes have outsold cars for the last 2 years!

Bloody Free Loaders     The spoonman   Allis (The dickhead)