Monday 26 September 2016

70.3 World Championship 2016

This is far from a race report but wanted to get what happened to me across and thank all the people for the messages and support since the accident.

My lead up to 70.3 World's was far from good, it wasn't until Friday 2nd September before the race that I actually made the decision to pack the bags and head up to compete. The knee injury I suffered at Philippines 70.3 had not yet recovered, I hadn't found out what is causing the pain that I feel swimming, riding and running and in the 3 weeks leading into World's I don't think I got more than 5 sessions done. I had tried everything to get this resolved but had no luck until Thursday 1st September, after my 3rd session of acupuncture I felt surprisingly good, had a test run and got 20mins done with no issues. The next morning I had an easy ride and again returned with no issues, that's when I made the decision to race, I couldn't miss the chance to race my first World Championship event, especially when it was on home soil.

Spent Friday packing for the race as I left early Saturday morning with my Dad. I arrived at Mooloolaba mid morning and caught up with my mate Lindsey for an ocean swim, I was pretty excited to see some decent waves rolling in whilst I was swimming and had my fingers crossed that it would be like this come race morning. Checked in to the hotel at lunch and then was out and about catching with friends and going through athlete check-in, it was great to see everyone and them being as surprised as I was that I had decided to race. After catching up with Oakley it was time to head out for a ride on my Cervelo that had just been fitted with the CeramicSpeed OSPWS. So was keen as to get out there.
It was around 4pm I headed out for a quick spin, going north along the road over Alexandra Headland and kept following that, the same as I do every year I come to race at Mooloolaba. The knee was feeling great and the traffic was at a minimum, the CeramicSpeed was working perfectly and all was excellent. That was all I remember.

My dad writes the rest of this report

I was contacted while waiting for Jake to return from his ride it was dark by now and well past his estimated return time, I had rung him and messaged him many times but no answer or reply. I was hopping he had met up with someone and was having a chat or he was getting his bike looked at by one of the mechanics. But the call came through from the front desk and the receptionist asked if I was Jakes father, I replied yes and she said that Dr Hughes from Nambour emergency was on the phone and wanted to speak to me. He said that Jake had been hit by a car and had some injuries including some head injuries.
As I’m driving to the hospital I rang Jakes mum and told her the news and to get up to Nambour. I get in to see Jake and he is not to good, he is still in his bike kit and has bark off him everywhere. His head is bleeding from 3 spots and his face is cut up. Over the next few hours he is in and out of conciseness, he has scans which show bleeding on the brain in 3 spots, fractures here and there and his right shoulder is a mess.
I have a visit from the Officer who is investigating the accident and was assured that Jake was not at any fault as the driver turned into him, the force of the hit has damaged the car badly and the officer is amazed that Jake is still alive. I also get a visit from Dave Beeche from Ironman to see how Jake is.
I believe the care and treatment Jake received that night in Emergency and the nurses who looked after him through the night made a huge impact on his overall condition and recovery. On Sunday Jake was not responding well to some of the pain medications and he was rushed to the ICU ward when he became unresponsive. It was then they decided to transfer him the Neurology ward at Royal Brisbane.
Over the next week Jake had many scans and x-rays to determine the extent of his injuries. He had visits from lots of his friends, unfortunately everything since the accident is a bit muddled. He can’t remember anything whilst he was in Hospital and has trouble remembering daily events since returning home.
I really appreciate all the good people Jake has in his life and the many messages of good will and hope. We are so lucky that Jake is still alive, out of hospital and on the road to recovery. I have added some photos of the helmet and the car that hit him to show how lucky he actually was.                     


Dent from car impact (above)                Impact of head hitting road (above)

Inside showing cracks and compression of high density foam moulding


Vehicle that hit Jake courtesy of Investigating Officer.
 

 

      Click photo to enlarge
 
Further to Dad's appreciation, I would just like to say a huge thanks to all those who cared for, visited and sent messages to me over the past few weeks. Whilst I'm still coming to terms with what happened and have suffered some serious injuries, all things going well, I am determined to get back to training as soon as possible.