Ghent tragedy

[Dan Gregory]

Isaac Galvez dies at Gent Six-day

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov26news2

RIP

[Ewoud Dronkert]

Dan Gregory wrote:
> Isaac Galvez dies at Gent Six-day
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov26news2

His road palmares: http://www.trap-friis.dk/cykling/spain.Galvez.htm

--
E. Dronkert

[Howard Kveck]

In article >,
Dan Gregory > wrote:

> Isaac Galvez dies at Gent Six-day
>
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov26news2
>
> RIP

Wow, that really stinks. I'm really sorry to hear about this.

--
tanx,
Howard

Never take a tenant with a monkey.

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article >,
Dan Gregory > wrote:

> Isaac Galvez dies at Gent Six-day
>
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov26news2
>
> RIP

Terrible.

Ghoulish perhaps, but is there any more info about his crash? Even at
Madison speeds, dying after hitting the (outside, right?) railing seems
freakish, especially since he didn't apparently do something ugly like
fly over the top edge and crash to the ground below.

But never let it be said that cycling is anything like a perfectly safe
sport. It is at least as dangerous as crossing the street, and this
accident goes some way to proving that.

My prayers are with Isaac. I think it was most respectful of the
organizers to shut down the Six-day, but also all but expected: six day
races are a big party, and it's not much of a party when one of the
guests of honour dies.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

[Lou D'Amelio]

As a trauma surgeon, I'm guessing that from the descriptions of
witnesses that he died of a tension pneumothorax. This is a collapsed
lung which continues to leak air into the chest cavity under pressure
eventually shifting the heart and causing cardiac arrest. Hitting a
railing at 30 mph as described could certainly do this. It's easily
remedied if recognized by advanced life support personnel (needle
decompression). A second guess is blunt cardiac rupture - if impact
occurs in the microsecond of the cardiac cycle when the atria are full,
they (esp. the right atrium) can rupture with an impact of this
magnitude.
In any event, a tragic loss of a young life.

Lou D'Amelio

[Carl Sundquist]

"Lou D'Amelio" > wrote in message
ups.com...

> In any event, a tragic loss of a young life.

Very much so.

[Bart]

>From what I've heard it must be something like your second guess. Most
press reports mention 'internal bleedings' and it seems to have
concerned the heart area.


De Fauw says someone attacked and he didn't saw Galves reacting and
coming up on his right hand side. Their handlebars hooked each other.
Ugly to experience that on his home track.

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article om>,
"Lou D'Amelio" > wrote:

> As a trauma surgeon, I'm guessing that from the descriptions of
> witnesses that he died of a tension pneumothorax. This is a collapsed
> lung which continues to leak air into the chest cavity under pressure
> eventually shifting the heart and causing cardiac arrest. Hitting a
> railing at 30 mph as described could certainly do this. It's easily
> remedied if recognized by advanced life support personnel (needle
> decompression). A second guess is blunt cardiac rupture - if impact
> occurs in the microsecond of the cardiac cycle when the atria are full,
> they (esp. the right atrium) can rupture with an impact of this
> magnitude.
> In any event, a tragic loss of a young life.
>
> Lou D'Amelio

Thanks for the insight. I wasn't aware of those sorts of possibilities
with chest impact. I mean, I know that weird stuff happens to human
bodies under severe impacts, but I usually think of the head and neck as
the vulnerable bits, or maybe liver/kidney/spleen damage.

Let's just hope we don't have occasion for any more exciting lessons in
trauma medicine coming up.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

[Lou D'Amelio]

Autopsy will tell for sure. The one detailed eyewitness report I read
described a period of respiratory difficulty before he died which would
be most consistent with my first hypothesis. It's also a much more
common entity than the second - I see one or two tension pneumothoraces
a week and have only seen a few blunt cardiac ruptures with any
survival interval in 23 years. Most of the latter just die instantly -
this poor soul apparently was alive for a few minutes.Traumatic rupture
of the thoracic aorta also a possibility, but again less consistent
with the eyewitness accounts. Unfortunately, all academic at this
point.

Lou D'Amelio

[Mike Murray]

Many years ago we had a death at a race which was probably a
tracheobronchial disruption. Head injury is, of course, the most common
thing that kills people in bike falls, helmet not withstanding. I would
have hoped that someone would have recognized and addressed a tension
pneumo, but maybe not.

--
Mike Murray

"Lou D'Amelio" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
>
> As a trauma surgeon, I'm guessing that from the descriptions of
> witnesses that he died of a tension pneumothorax. This is a collapsed
> lung which continues to leak air into the chest cavity under pressure
> eventually shifting the heart and causing cardiac arrest. Hitting a
> railing at 30 mph as described could certainly do this. It's easily
> remedied if recognized by advanced life support personnel (needle
> decompression). A second guess is blunt cardiac rupture - if impact
> occurs in the microsecond of the cardiac cycle when the atria are full,
> they (esp. the right atrium) can rupture with an impact of this
> magnitude.
> In any event, a tragic loss of a young life.
>
> Lou D'Amelio
>

[Marlene Blanshay]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> In article >,
> Dan Gregory > wrote:
>
>> Isaac Galvez dies at Gent Six-day
>>
>> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov26news2
>>
>> RIP
>
> Terrible.
>
> Ghoulish perhaps, but is there any more info about his crash? Even at
> Madison speeds, dying after hitting the (outside, right?) railing seems
> freakish, especially since he didn't apparently do something ugly like
> fly over the top edge and crash to the ground below.
>
> But never let it be said that cycling is anything like a perfectly safe
> sport. It is at least as dangerous as crossing the street, and this
> accident goes some way to proving that.
>
> My prayers are with Isaac. I think it was most respectful of the
> organizers to shut down the Six-day, but also all but expected: six day
> races are a big party, and it's not much of a party when one of the
> guests of honour dies.
>
and it sounds like, for the most part, it's pretty safe- some of those
races have been going for like 60 years and there is only one fatality
that they've mentioned. They have crashes every night and some pretty
bad ones...it was just a slip up in the cosmos somewhere.

[Jim S]

We see a case or 2 a year of commotio cordis around here since lacrosse is
popular - doubtful in a cycling injury but possible where an abrupt hit to
the chest causes cardiac arrest.

"Marlene Blanshay" > wrote in message
.. .
> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>> In article >,
>> Dan Gregory > wrote:
>>
>>> Isaac Galvez dies at Gent Six-day
>>>
>>> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov26news2
>>>
>>> RIP
>>
>> Terrible.
>>
>> Ghoulish perhaps, but is there any more info about his crash? Even at
>> Madison speeds, dying after hitting the (outside, right?) railing seems
>> freakish, especially since he didn't apparently do something ugly like
>> fly over the top edge and crash to the ground below.
>>
>> But never let it be said that cycling is anything like a perfectly safe
>> sport. It is at least as dangerous as crossing the street, and this
>> accident goes some way to proving that.
>>
>> My prayers are with Isaac. I think it was most respectful of the
>> organizers to shut down the Six-day, but also all but expected: six day
>> races are a big party, and it's not much of a party when one of the
>> guests of honour dies.
>>
> and it sounds like, for the most part, it's pretty safe- some of those
> races have been going for like 60 years and there is only one fatality
> that they've mentioned. They have crashes every night and some pretty bad
> ones...it was just a slip up in the cosmos somewhere.

[[email protected]]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:

> Thanks for the insight. I wasn't aware of those sorts of possibilities
> with chest impact. I mean, I know that weird stuff happens to human
> bodies under severe impacts, but I usually think of the head and neck as
> the vulnerable bits, or maybe liver/kidney/spleen damage.

I've never heard of anyone dying on the track, for
any reason, before this. Has it ever happened before?
Unspeakable tragedy of the **** happens variety.
God bless this poor guy's soul, he didn't deserve
to end that way.

[Davey Crockett]

writes:

> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>
> > Thanks for the insight. I wasn't aware of those sorts of possibilities
> > with chest impact. I mean, I know that weird stuff happens to human
> > bodies under severe impacts, but I usually think of the head and neck as
> > the vulnerable bits, or maybe liver/kidney/spleen damage.
>
> I've never heard of anyone dying on the track, for
> any reason, before this. Has it ever happened before?
> Unspeakable tragedy of the **** happens variety.
> God bless this poor guy's soul, he didn't deserve
> to end that way.
>

many times

--
Le vent à Dos
Davey Crockett
[No 4Q to reply]

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article >,
Davey Crockett > wrote:

> writes:
>
> > Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks for the insight. I wasn't aware of those sorts of possibilities
> > > with chest impact. I mean, I know that weird stuff happens to human
> > > bodies under severe impacts, but I usually think of the head and neck as
> > > the vulnerable bits, or maybe liver/kidney/spleen damage.
> >
> > I've never heard of anyone dying on the track, for
> > any reason, before this. Has it ever happened before?
> > Unspeakable tragedy of the **** happens variety.
> > God bless this poor guy's soul, he didn't deserve
> > to end that way.
> >
>
> many times

To elaborate on what Davey said, probably the most famous track death of
all was the death of Eddy Merckx's pacer in a 1969 derny race. The same
accident also cracked one of Eddy's vertebrae, among other injuries.

The accident looms even larger in Eddy's career than Bob Dylan's
motorcycle crash does in Dylan's career.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

[Donald Munro]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> To elaborate on what Davey said, probably the most famous track death of
> all was the death of Eddy Merckx's pacer in a 1969 derny race. The same
> accident also cracked one of Eddy's vertebrae, among other injuries.
>
> The accident looms even larger in Eddy's career than Bob Dylan's
> motorcycle crash does in Dylan's career.

Perhaps, by a simple twist of fate, Dylan was driving the derny.

[Dan Gregory]

wrote:

> I've never heard of anyone dying on the track, for
> any reason, before this. Has it ever happened before?

Stan Ockers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Ockers
http://www.cyclinghalloffame.com/riders/rider_bio.asp?rider_id=67