Japanese biker fails to notice missing leg

[Prrkitty]

Hmmm... this guy felt excruciating pain but didn't notice he was missing his leg (from the knee down) for over 1.2 miles. A friend picked it up for him.

The article kinda implies that doctors were not able to re-attach his leg.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/14/japan.biker.reut/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

... excruciating pain... but didn't notice... HOW?
*just shakes my head*

[Trevelyan_06]

He felt excruciating pain, but did not notice that his right leg was missing until he stopped at the next junction, the paper quoted local police as saying.

It's really horrible, but I can imagine him coming to a stop, trying to put his leg out and falling over on his right side.

[phattonez]

Something tells me that drugs were involved. To not pass out from the pain is enough to show me that he had some kind of pain killer.

[Gleeok]

More so how the hell can you ride for 2 kilometers without a leg? The blood loss alone would make that an incredible feat, not to mention going into shock or losing balance. "oops, I just ran straight into the divider. Better drive faster". This is dumb on many levels of dumb. They should run a blood test.

[Glenn the Great]

I've heard many stories of accidental limb loss. They are all very amazing like this one. Strange things happen in your body as soon as it is lost as a natural defense.

[Cloral]

It's really horrible, but I can imagine him coming to a stop, trying to put his leg out and falling over on his right side.

I had the exact same image in my head.

[Mitsukara]

It seems plausible that the nerve endings were severed in such a way that he didn't feel much. And I'm sure, especially as a MOTORCYCLE driver, he was very attentive to keeping his eyes on the road.

That would really suck though. Hopefully this guy can get a pretty good artificial one.

[Rijuhn]

Hopefully this guy can get a pretty good artificial one.

I'd imagine so, he's in Japan after all. :P

[phattonez]

Oh this was a motorcycle? I was wondering how he was still able to go without that leg. Well in that case, maybe he couldn't tell because of the vibrations of the bike. I've never ridden one so I wouldn't know.

Btw, hi Rijuhn, I haven't seen you around for a long time.

[Glenn the Great]

I'd imagine so, he's in Japan after all. :P

Oh yeah, being in Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if it could shoot lasers!

[AtmaWeapon]

The body is a wonderful machine that does a lot to protect itself when it is in grave danger. I've heard that the pain of limb loss is most severe during the calm, peaceful moment when you glance at the stub and become fully conscious of the damage your body has sustained. When it happens during a high-stress situation adrenaline tends to dull the pain.

From the sound of it, the guy hit a barrier at a fairly high speed. I'm pretty sure I'd expect my leg to hurt a little bit afterwards, so excruciating pain probably wasn't a big sign to him that something was abnormal.

Also consider he hit a wall with enough force to sever his leg, I'm pretty sure he wasn't going 60mph when he hit the wall. Assuming a conservative speed of 80mph, my calculations suggest covering 1.2 miles would take about 66 seconds, which seems like a reasonable amount of time to recover from the initial shock, realize you didn't fall off the bike, realize you are hurt, stop the bike, then discover you are missing a limb.

[phattonez]

66 seconds is a very long time, people stay on bulls for at most like 8 seconds, to give you a reference for how long that is.

[Glenn the Great]

66 seconds is a very long time, people stay on bulls for at most like 8 seconds, to give you a reference for how long that is.

Well, his motorcycle wasn't bucking like an angry bull. It was a high-inertia object carrying a lot of momentum with a rather low center of gravity, and thus not so easy to flip over.

[phattonez]

You read my analogy all wrong.

[mrz84]

Oh yeah, being in Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if it could shoot lasers!

And don't forget that it can transform into a 50 foot high robot, too! :kitty:

In all seriousness though, I'm taken aback how he could go without noticing his leg missing. I'd notice out of the corner of my eye if I was in his situation that my leg was missing. BUt maybe that's jsut me. :shrug:

[DarkDragoonX]

Was the guy married? Can you imagine explaining that to your wife? "Hey honey, I, uh, I'm at the hospital... I kind of lost my leg. No, I don't have it with me. Well, I, uh, I didn't notice until later."

The worst part of this isn't the injury. It's that if his friends and family are even remotely like mine, he will never hear the end of it.

EDIT: Oh geez, wife aside, imagine explaining it to your insurance company...

[Brasel]

The body is a wonderful machine that does a lot to protect itself when it is in grave danger. I've heard that the pain of limb loss is most severe during the calm, peaceful moment when you glance at the stub and become fully conscious of the damage your body has sustained. When it happens during a high-stress situation adrenaline tends to dull the pain.

From the sound of it, the guy hit a barrier at a fairly high speed. I'm pretty sure I'd expect my leg to hurt a little bit afterwards, so excruciating pain probably wasn't a big sign to him that something was abnormal.

Also consider he hit a wall with enough force to sever his leg, I'm pretty sure he wasn't going 60mph when he hit the wall. Assuming a conservative speed of 80mph, my calculations suggest covering 1.2 miles would take about 66 seconds, which seems like a reasonable amount of time to recover from the initial shock, realize you didn't fall off the bike, realize you are hurt, stop the bike, then discover you are missing a limb.

From my combat life saver class, I learned that in some situations, the stub where your lost limb used to be might not even bleed until you realize that its gone. Its happened during some combat situations where soldiers will lose a leg or something and continue to fight from the ground not realizing that they lost anything in the process.