A serious ouch

On Friday, I went for a bike ride with our part-time neighbors, Miriam and Greg.  All three of us were on mountain bikes, but we were on either roads or packed gravel paths, about as flat as it gets in Park City. 

This is Miriam and Greg. Yes, I know they aren't on mountain bikes, but I am limited to the photos I have.

Miriam was a ways behind us when she came around a blind corner to find an oncoming boy and his father, on her side of the path.  She swerved to miss them and ended up in the ditch.  After a 911 call and an ambulance ride to the hospital, they discovered she had four broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and worst, a collapsed lung. 

I've had some cuts and bruises from biking, but nothing like this.  We are hoping she comes home from the hospital this afternoon.

Things I have learned, beyond the obvious suggestions of "try to stay upright":

• If you hit hard enough, you can actually collapse a lung without a rib puncturing it.  
• The big fear for recovery is pneumonia.  If you don't take deep breaths, clearing out the lungs and getting the meds in deep, you are very susceptible. Of course, with broken ribs, taking deep breaths is extremely painful.
• You aren't allowed to fly for 4-6 weeks after a collapsed lung.  
• You don't have to be bombing down a narrow mountain path to hurt yourself on a mountain bike.  What happened to her could have easily happened to any of us.  Scarey.