What does recovering from a bicycle accident look like?
In a recent article, the New York Post describes how David Jevotovsky, a medical student who was riding a bike, suffered traumatic brain injury and almost died after being hit by a car in New York City in 2017. After the accident, he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with what is called an epidural hematoma which is a bleeding between the skull and the brain. This type of injury can sometimes be deadly or if the victim survives, it can have lifetime consequences.
Bellevue Hospital in New York has one of the best reputations for treating traumas from crashes and the medical team who took care of David put him in an induced coma for a week so they could monitor the pressure in his brain. He spent a month there, heavily medicated, during which he felt very delusional. Hopes that he would be able to have a normal life again were low.
He was discharged after a month to go to an inpatient rehab in Rochester where his family was and took a semester off from medical school, strongly hoping to recover. One year later, almost miraculously, the student recovered and ran the marathon in 2018.
Last month, Jevotovosky graduated from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and he is planning to continue his career in physical medicine and rehabilitation. In addition to a very strong will to recover Jevotovsky had a great support system from his family and student friends which is key when recovering from such traumatic injury.