McCann (leading) on stage 2; he got into the winning break and came 2nd to move up to 2nd on GC
After coming down in a high speed crash at the end of stage 5 of the Tour of Korea last Thursday, David McCann ripped the flesh from the top of his thumb, most likely after catching the jagged leg of a crowd control barrier. The freak incident left his bone exposed and fractured, and severed an artery. In this dispatch from a hospital in Seoul, he explains the painful nature of the injury but expresses hope that he will not have to have his thumb amputated.
(Note: There is a photo of McCann’s wound at the bottom of this text. Click on the link if you want to see the injury. It’s not overly graphic, but if you are squeamish maybe it’s best not to look.)
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At first look I thought I had surely lost the top piece of my thumb. But now I'm coming to be cautiously optimistic that I’m not going to need amputation; that they can mend it.
After initial treatment in Gumi, the race organisers got me transferred to the Seoul National University Hospital, where they re-opened my wound and have been meticulously cleaning it out off any foreign particles since it was such a dirty wound.
It is painful. The process should help the long term healing though.
They’ve been looking after me well here; so they’re giving it every chance to recover and I'm on a balanced diet of a good variety of antibiotics because of the risk of a nasty bone infection.
I fractured the exposed bone and damaged the nerve but it was severing one of the arteries that has left some blackened tissue, which is a worry. But with luck it will come around.
The way the guy dumped down so quickly in front of me in the finishing sprint last Thursday looked almost more like he had locked handlebars than overlapped a wheel. It was a pretty intense sprint with everyone getting a half hour rest with 25km to go and fresh legs after the race motorbike had hit the riders.
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With the little downhill at 500m to go we were travelling seriously quick and it was pure tumbling chaos after I went over him and into the barriers.
In spite of the trouble with the traffic control and motorbikes, I recall thinking how much I was enjoying the Tour of Korea up to that point and was pretty confident in my legs. If they can get on top of the safety issues it has the potential to be a really fantastic event.
I’m really frustrated not to get the chance to win the race again after getting the GC in 2005.
Cheers
David
Click this link for photo of slashed thumb
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