Peter Carpenter

Further to Pam's note in her report for B Group regarding Peter's accident here is a more long winded account.

After leaving the A320 we turned into Mixnams Lane to ride around Laleham Reach which borders Penton Hook. Shortly after 15:30, having left the Laleham Reach road and ridden nearly a quarter of the way down the Ferry Lane path Peter ran across a tree root which was protruding diagonally across part of the path, causing him to fall heavily.

Peter stood up with some effort and almost immediately suspected that he may have fractured his pelvis. I phoned Pam who was waiting to regroup at the Chertsey Abbey end of the path. Gill was heading back towards us to see what was happening and in the meantime Nick and Ray went on to explain the bad news.

We decided to back track to where the road ends, near the golf club where unfortunately there was no sign of life. Peter accomplished this slowly, leaning on his bike for support. A van emerged from a nearby property, the driver stopped and after a brief conversation understood our situation very rapidly, quickly establishing that Peter needed to get to hospital. The driver and his wife, with extreme generosity, helped get Peter into the passenger seat and his bike in the back and with some rearrangement of a grand-daughter and a dog, drove off to St Peters Hospital in Chertsey. Hugely kind people.

I rode over to St Peters and found Peter's bike locked up in the rack next to A&E, and Peter himself in reception. Not too long after he was whisked across the road in his wheelchair for an X-Ray then whisked into another clinic for an examination. He emerged and confirmed the diagnosis of a fractured pelvis. While he was having another examination I spoke to Pam and, after considering various options for doing something with Peter's bike, she contacted her good neighbour who was intending to come up to the hospital to collect his wife after her shift. So, in yet another act of great kindness, he turned up in his Volvo Estate and put  Peter's bike in the back and drove off.

Back inside I caught up wth Peter again, flat on his back, somewhat immobile, and looking at the ceiling, and it was quite clear that he would be in hospital overnight. I said goodbye and left him there and caught trains home from Chertsey, during which I spoke to Peter's sister and to his good friend in Folkestone. 

This morning I picked up a text message from him which he had sent at 02:40 to say that he had been relocated to St George's Hospital in Tooting. Later he let me know by text that he had actually managed to get some sleep, that his good neighbours were going to feed his rabbits while he was in hospital, and that he expected to be in hospital for several days.

Peter said that although they were moving him about he was in Gunning Ward for now and when I asked he advised that visiting hours are from 3 pm to 8pm. So I hope to get to see him tomorrow afternoon.

~ Tim