It was back when I was going to college in Utah, before I moved to Oregon. I was crossing a cross-walk on campus, (the kind with a stop-light for the cars even!) and all the cars had stopped like they should, but a guy on a bicycle who was going down hill apparently decided that stop lights weren't for bikes, because he just zoomed right through, and hit me straight on.
I did an actual somersault from the impact and landed on my head and shoulder, after which things get a little bit blurry, since, you know, I'd just landed on my head! But half a dozen of the other students who'd been crossing too came over, and one of them was a nursing student, so she knew what to do, while somebody else called an ambulance to come get me. (Shortest ambulance ride ever, the hospital is across the street from the university.)
I didn't end up with a concussion, but I did have a HUGE goose egg, and had a really hard time thinking clearly for the next couple of weeks, not to mention being in a ton of pain. They gave me some opiate-based pain killers, and after the first one that I took right when the doctor gave it to me I didn't take any more, I don't like the "I'm not running my own brain" feeling they gave me. I walked home from the hospital (I lived about four blocks from it, so it wasn't far) which turned out to be kind of stupid, I felt just about dead when I got home, but after that I healed up pretty well.
The guy on the bike had stopped, and asked if I was okay, but after just a minute or so he said he wanted to go clean up his skinned knee, and he vanished and didn't come back. The campus cops caught him loading his bike into a car, so he got charged with a hit and run. They didn't make me go to court, but I got a notice about it, that I could go and testify if I wanted to, but I didn't care. I gather he was in pretty bad trouble as it was.
His insurance company paid me $700, which they said was the standard for how much I'd been injured. The insurance guy seemed really concerned that I might try and sue them for more, but I felt strange enough just taking the money they gave me. It is so weird to me that injuries are quantified in dollars like that. It's a strange society we live in. But anyway, that's how I bought my first computer, I'd always just used the family computer before that.
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I did an actual somersault from the impact and landed on my head and shoulder, after which things get a little bit blurry, since, you know, I'd just landed on my head! But half a dozen of the other students who'd been crossing too came over, and one of them was a nursing student, so she knew what to do, while somebody else called an ambulance to come get me. (Shortest ambulance ride ever, the hospital is across the street from the university.)
I didn't end up with a concussion, but I did have a HUGE goose egg, and had a really hard time thinking clearly for the next couple of weeks, not to mention being in a ton of pain. They gave me some opiate-based pain killers, and after the first one that I took right when the doctor gave it to me I didn't take any more, I don't like the "I'm not running my own brain" feeling they gave me. I walked home from the hospital (I lived about four blocks from it, so it wasn't far) which turned out to be kind of stupid, I felt just about dead when I got home, but after that I healed up pretty well.
The guy on the bike had stopped, and asked if I was okay, but after just a minute or so he said he wanted to go clean up his skinned knee, and he vanished and didn't come back. The campus cops caught him loading his bike into a car, so he got charged with a hit and run. They didn't make me go to court, but I got a notice about it, that I could go and testify if I wanted to, but I didn't care. I gather he was in pretty bad trouble as it was.
His insurance company paid me $700, which they said was the standard for how much I'd been injured. The insurance guy seemed really concerned that I might try and sue them for more, but I felt strange enough just taking the money they gave me. It is so weird to me that injuries are quantified in dollars like that. It's a strange society we live in. But anyway, that's how I bought my first computer, I'd always just used the family computer before that.
So now you know. :D