Trail safety tips with Ryan King

An insight into the important decisions that saved Ryan King’s life out on the trail. 

On February 15, I broke my neck. I clipped a log, went over the bars and landed on my head – it was like diving into a swimming pool with no water in it.

I’m fully licensed and was on a registered bike. I was cruising down a fire trail at about 30km/h, on a flat, straight track – basically, I wasn’t doing anything stupid. I had four mates with me and we were enjoying a perfect day on the bikes. We were about 25 kilometres into a 100km loop near Walhalla in Victoria.

As soon as I stopped tumbling, I knew something was wrong. At first I had no feeling in my arms and legs, which quickly changed to pins and needles radiating out, then normal feeling came back. In that first 30 seconds after the accident, I made a conscious decision not to move – that decision saved my life.

When my mates arrived on the scene they went to help me up. “Don’t f#ckin’ touch me!” I screamed. “I’ve hurt my neck.” That saved my life. We were lucky to have mobile reception and I said to the boys, “Call 112, because the only way I’m getting out of here is in a helicopter!” I lay there without moving for three hours waiting for the ambulance.

While we were waiting for the ambulance, I was in no pain and could move my arms and legs. My mates were giving me shit for stuffing up the day, telling me I was winded and to suck it up. We were laughing and joking. We had no idea how serious my injuries were at that point. I spent the next week in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit.

I was actually really lucky on the day I had the accident. I was lucky to have not been knocked unconscious. We were lucky to have mobile reception. We were lucky to have two other riders turn up with an EPIRB (Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon) which helped pinpoint our location for the ambulance. The nearest ambulance station had just taken delivery of a 4×4. One of the paramedics who arrived was an expert on spinal injury. There was a helipad at the end of the track we were on. Other than breaking my neck, everything was in my favour.

I was airlifted to The Alfred and spent the next four weeks there. I had two surgeries to fix and fuse the broken vertebrae in my neck. I had some nerve damage and bruising to my spinal cord which caused other complications – my heart would randomly stop beating! I ended up with a temporary pacemaker to regulate my heartbeat while the bruising and swelling went down. I spent three months in a halo, and I’ll be in a neck brace for another month at least. I’ll be off work for about five months.

Everyone tells me how lucky I was, but it wasn’t until I spoke to the surgeons who explained everything that I realised just how lucky I really was. I was never going to be a quadriplegic or paraplegic – because of where the break was, I would have just died. Another 0.5mm would have been enough to sever my spinal cord and I would have dropped dead on the spot. The surgeons said if I had even tried to get up, I would have died. If I’d been knocked unconscious and my mates had moved me, I would have died. If the paramedics had been sloppy when they took my helmet off or moved me, I would have died…

I really want other riders to learn from my story. Always carry your mobile – we were a long way from a phone tower, but we were on high ground and had 3G reception which allowed us to give our lat/long to the emergency services (before the EPIRB arrived). The bloke who turned up with the EPIRB carries it in his pack because he sometimes rides by himself – he took one look at me lying on my back, on my pack, and realised that he needed somewhere else to carry it. There was no way I would have been able to get anything out of my pack.

If you even think for a second that you’ve hurt your spine – don’t move! It was a massive call to lie still for hours, but that decision saved my life. It would have been so easy to just try and get up, thinking it wasn’t serious. The doctors at The Alfred said a lot of the spinal injuries they see are compounded by people thinking they’re not badly injured and get up instead of staying still.

I can’t emphasise enough how important the decisions in those first moments were. Everyone remained calm, assessed the situation and made critical choices which were literally the difference between life and death.

It’s been a really tough few months for me and my family, but I’m here to tell the story. I’ll lose 50% of movement in my neck because my spine is fused, and there are still some heart tests to be done, but other than that, I’ll make a full recovery – no more bike riding, though.