Randy Savely’s vest with the Broken Wings patch.

The broken wing patch says to the world after a bad wreck that you have what it takes to get right back on a bike and keep on living. – 6 Gun

Back in the saddle

Randy Savely was without a motorcycle from March 2007, when his Harley was destroyed in the crash that cost him a leg, until September 2008, when his court case was concluded and he and Joan received a cash settlement. He had ridden a couple times already, however, on friends’ bikes.

The first ride was in the 2008 Commerce City Memorial Day parade. Joan was “beside myself” with fear for him but Randy had never wavered in his determination to ride again.

Coming down I-270 at the back of the group, Randy noticed that his left foot had fallen off the peg and was dragging. Not good. He hoisted his leg up and swung the prosthesis onto the peg and rode the rest of the way putting pressure on it to ensure it stayed put.

At last it was time for the Broken Wings patch. The patch is frequently given to a rider by another who has also crashed and gotten back on. Randy had received the patch before he rode, but it was only after this ride that he allowed Joan to sew the patch onto his vest.

The idea of riding behind him again was also a difficult issue for Joan.

“You’ve got to get a few miles on that bike before I ride with you,” she told him. “It was glorious and sobering. Do I really want to do this again?” she asked herself.

Still, by the time Randy had about 6 miles on the new bike Joan hopped right on.

“It felt totally safe, more so than on the old bike,” she says, unable to explain it. “Maybe it’s the law of averages.” After all, how many people suffer two major crashes?

The new Harley Ultra Classic has a number of customizations designed to compensate for Randy’s limitations. First off, it has floorboards with a stirrup on the left to keep his foot from falling off again. It also has an electric shift. Buying a new pair of boots recently, Randy found he couldn’t operate the kick-stand wearing them so now he plans to get an electrically operated one.

Backing up is a struggle, especially on loose gravel.

“I plant my foot real good and push back. Backing is the hardest thing to do.”

Randy mounts from the right side so he can lift his left leg over. Weakness in the left leg makes it impossible to stand on that leg and lift the right leg over. It can be a significant problem getting on when someone parks too close to him on the right side.

Randy’s accident has also had an effect on other riders he knows. One friend’s wife made him sell his bike. Joan’s son Vince, for whom Randy has been dad since he was 9, left his bike unridden and unlicensed for more than a year after the accident. He has finally started riding again, however.

It has been a hard two years but Randy and Joan are upbeat.

Says Joan, “It will never be the way it used to be, but now, two years later, it’s pretty darn good. It’s all relative for us. We had to make a choice: give up and let it beat us or keep fighting.”

“It’s as normal as what a person can make of it,” says Randy. “Yes, it does hurt, it hurts every day, and it’s always a struggle trying to do something with it.”

Some people are hesitant to bring up the issue but Randy laughs that off.

“I know I lost my leg, it’s no secret to me.”

And there have been mishaps. Randy and Joan went dancing one night and all that movement loosened the prosthesis. As they walked out the door of the bar his leg fell off.

“We laughed pretty hard at that, and at a lot of things. You have to.”

Through it all the most important thing has been the support they have received from so many people.

“We didn’t expect any of it,” says Joan. “There’s never a way to pay that back, so we decided to pass it on and do at some other level for other people. Pay it forward, call it whatever you like.”

That’s where the Randy Run comes in.

The Randy Run

Randy and Joan were financially devastated by the accident, losing their house and most of what they had. But seemingly out of nowhere a community of friends–as well as total strangers–gathered around them to provide support and caring and to ensure that they did not sink into despair and isolation.

While Randy was still in the hospital, one friend had the idea of organizing a fundraising run to raise money to help out. Dubbed the Randy Run, Joan’s friend Deb Anderson took charge of organizing it, going so far as joining ABATE in order for it to be an official ABATE District 10 run, although Deb does not ride.

Deb and her boyfriend were “absolutely my lifeline that kept me square,” says Joan. “The Randy Run evolved out of her dedication–she didn’t know what else to do.” That first year, the money raised went to Randy and Joan.

The following year, Randy and Joan helped to organize a second Randy Run to benefit others who suffer severe injuries on their bikes. Now, in 2009, ABATE of Colorado has made the Randy Run a state-wide event, to be held annually. This year’s Randy Run is set for this Sunday, June 14, and Randy and Joan are heavily involved.

“The Randy Run is part of what has helped us get back,” says Randy. “The run is a reason for coming back.”

Joan adds, “It would have been easy to just quit, but the way people came together to help us, it humbles you and changes your perspective in a heartbeat.”

Randy bought patches for the two beneficiaries of last year’s Randy Run, but he’s still holding on to them because neither of those riders have yet gotten back on a bike.

Randy and Joan are back, however, and on Sunday they’ll be riding. You can bet I’ll be there, too.

Part 1 – The Accident and the Hospital
Part 2 – The Road to Recovery

The Randy Run for Fallen Bikers

Biker Quote for Today

Getting really old, had to get one of those mobility scooters.
—What kind?
—Harley-Davidson

Randy and Joan Savely

Two weeks after Randy Savely lost his left leg below the knee in a car/motorcycle accident, his wife Joan and her son Vince were awakened by crashing noises. Racing to see what happened, they found Randy laying at the bottom of the stairs with two garbage bags beside him. He had been carrying one bag in each hand, trying to navigate the stairs with his crutches, and had fallen.

On one hand she was relieved that he was not badly hurt or bleeding from his injured leg, but on the other hand, “I wanted to kill him.”

“Leave those trash bags where they are, I’ll take care of them,” he told Joan and Vince. “This trash will not get the best of me.”

The road to recovery

The ramifications of losing a leg are not all as obvious as climbing stairs with crutches.

“You don’t realize the limitations a prosthesis presents,” says Joan. “He can’t crawl under the car to change the oil like he used to. He can’t get up on the roof to replace shingles the wind blew off. He wears out so much more quickly that we have to schedule things and not try to do them during the week when he’s tired out from work. It’s not that he can’t do some things, it’s just that he’ll be worn out for a couple days afterward, so we plan those things for the weekend.”

Joan explains that amputees require as much as 50 percent more oxygen than before, which is where the exhaustion comes from. Randy’s leg is also permanently weakened, and there are limits to how much he can lift.

Dealing with the artifical leg, the prosthesis, has its own issues. Randy has different feet for different functions, and “my walking foot is spring-loaded, and pushes me into the next step. I’m fortunate to have my knee and be able to do what I can.”

Every time Randy changes shoes he must readjust the prosthesis to compensate for different heel heights, using shims.

“Each morning I spend 45 minutes walking around getting the shims just right. I take them with me everywhere I go and adjust things several times a day.”

Physical adjustments were not the only issue the family had to deal with, and the friends who gathered in support at the hospital continued to show their concern afterward.

“They brought an enormous amount of food, and raised a lot of money,” says Joan. “They made sure we didn’t just fold up, made sure I was still functioning on the planet, staying engaged.”

Friends came by frequently and took them boating and camping. “We went tent camping, and both air mattresses went flat so we slept in the car,” Randy laughs. “I’m going to try this year to get out bird hunting.”

Support came from all directions. When Joan’s car broke down her boss handed her the keys to his Hummer and told her to just drive it until her car was fixed. Then a friend, Tim, took her car for repair, and when it was ready told her where to go to pick it up. When she asked how much the repairs would cost the folks at the shop told her “It’s paid for” and would not tell her by whom. She finally learned that Tim and another friend had covered it.

Although Randy’s medical care was covered by health insurance, he did not have disability coverage and the loss of income was crippling. Told by the doctors that it could be a year before Randy would walk, they knew they could not make their house payments. They informed the mortgage company of the situation and went into foreclosure. Ultimately they also filed for bankruptcy.

Losing the house wasn’t all negative. It had four levels, which made things pretty hard for Randy with all those stairs. The rental they moved into is all on one floor. And when the day to move arrived, friends in eight pick-ups and trailers showed up and “We made it all in one trip. We started at 8 a.m. and were done by 2 p.m.”

Part 1 – The Accident and the Hospital
Part 3 – Back in the Saddle

Biker Quote for Today

Bikes are like wives; if it ain’t yours don’t touch it.

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.