Examiner Resurrection: Broken Wings: When A Biker Goes Down Hard – Part 1
OK, it’s Thanksgiving week and I’m going to give myself a break and go completely with these Examiner Resurrections. But that’s great, because this three-part piece that I will post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is what I consider one of the very best things I ever did in eight years writing for Examiner.
A bit of an update is in order, however. Randy and Joan have since divorced, and Randy is no longer active in ABATE. He does still hold the Randy Run for Fallen Bikers.
Randy Savely displays his new Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic and his new leg.
Broken Wings: When A Biker Goes Down Hard – Part 1
When everything finally came to a stop, Randy Savely sat up, thinking, “Well, I’m alive.”
A couple moments later he noticed his boot laying in the middle of the intersection.
“That boot don’t come off,” he thought. Then he turned to the driver who had hit him and asked for his belt to use as a tourniquet on his leg.
At that early morning hour on March 8, 2007, life changed forever for Randy and Joan Savely. Randy lost his left foot and lower leg, and he and Joan gained an understanding of what is truly important in life: friends and family and people who care about you.
The accident and the hospital
Randy needed to be at work early that March day, so, with only one car, he decided to let Joan sleep and take the Harley. They worked close to each other so normally they went together.
Riding east approaching an intersection, Randy saw the car coming the other way, looked to the left at the car stopped there, and looked back to see the oncoming car was turning into his path.
Awakened by the phone, Joan hurried to the hospital. Randy and Joan are ABATE members, and word flew out through the ABATE grapevine so that by 7 a.m. Joan was joined by 15 friends who sat with her the entire time until Randy came out of surgery at 3 p.m.
Before going into surgery, Randy informed the surgeon that “I will walk and I will ride again.”
The doctor replied, “You do understand that we’re going in the operating room and I’m going to amputate your leg?”
Randy replied, “Doc, you do what you’ve gotta do, I’m going to ride again.”
Under other circumstances, they learned later, the surgeon probably would have removed the leg to above the knee. Considering Randy’s determination, the doc worked extra hard to save the knee, and he was successful.
“The doc was awesome,” says Randy. With the knee still attached, he is able to bend his leg, which makes a world of difference sitting on a motorcycle.
Joan was with him through it all. “She put up with more than I did,” Randy says, and when Joan came in his room one time looking obviously exhausted he told her to climb in bed next to him and sleep.
“I hadn’t slept in three days,” Joan says. Randy kept the nurses away and Joan slept there the entire afternoon.
During his hospital stay, Randy has a constant stream of visitors. Most were friends and acquaintances, but one day he noticed someone he did not recognize in the hall in leathers, just standing there.
“Do I know you?” Randy asked.
“No,” the stranger replied, “I just heard a brother had gone down and I wanted to see how you are.”
The two talked awhile and Randy has never seen him since.
“It choked me up, holy for crying out loud. You feel so insignificant, but then you feel so important to some people.”
“It’s changed what’s important in our lives,” says Joan. “There are so many things that are just not important any more.”
Randy had four surgeries in the week following the accident, and whereas most patients would have stayed in the hospital for three weeks, he recovered so well and so quickly that he was released after one week. Far from being the end, however, this was just the beginning.
Part 2 — The Road to Recovery
Part 3 — Back in the Saddle
Biker Quote for Today
I’m a biker’s wife. Just like a regular wife but way more badass.
Tags: randy run
