My Joust with the Blue Badge of Death

Thanks for all the legal/insurance advice everyone. I've got quite a lot of info together and have contacted some cycle specific solicitors through British Cycling with whom I had some insurance. They seem to think there's a good chance they'll get somewhere with a claim and sound like they know what they're doing - apparently a driver crossing a cyclist's path is one of the most common cycle claims so there should be some good precedents. I'm not expecting it to move fast though!
Thanks too for everyones good wishes - the Forum comes through once again as a truly supportive community.

not being all negative, but those stitches are ok if was anywhere but your face...
they're gona leave a gaping scar...
u can get smaller stitches that leave very small scars and im surprised that they haven't used them.
plastic surgeons use them etc...
i would enquire about it if your worried about the scarring, cos i know i would be.

tom, thanks a horrible accident man. my worst fucking nightmare, and its nearly happened a few times to me too. hope to catch you at a drinks sometime, get well soon!

not being all negative, but those stitches are ok if was anywhere but your face...
they're gona leave a gaping scar...
u can get smaller stitches that leave very small scars and im surprised that they haven't used them.
plastic surgeons use them etc...
i would enquire about it if your worried about the scarring, cos i know i would be.

And your qualifications for this statement are??

Gaping scars are not caused by large stitches; they are caused by imperfect alignment of skin edges, tension pulling wound edges apart, infection and being the sort of person who forms keloid scars.

Chins heal pretty well; I fixed one lady who put her handlebars through her chin, with a wound right through to the teeth. When I saw her again at a CTC function after a few months, I couldn't see the scar unless she stretched the area. I never stitched as neatly as those but it all still came out fine.

The stitches look fine to me and will leave minimal stitch mark scarring if removed soon enough.
The scar itself may spread if the wound reopens but this is unlikely.

Heal well, pirat!

not being all negative, but those stitches are ok if was anywhere but your face...
they're gona leave a gaping scar...
u can get smaller stitches that leave very small scars and im surprised that they haven't used them.
plastic surgeons use them etc...
i would enquire about it if your worried about the scarring, cos i know i would be.

Actually Tom's stiches look pretty damn tidy to me and although I'm no expert I have seen eyebrows and top of the cheek-bone gashes stitched worse than that and healed exceptionaly, almost invisibly, well.

Still worth questioning, for the sake of it, as you say - just to get as much knowledge as possible from a surgeon or somone who knows this stuff inside out but it does look very tidy to me. Bearing in mind these things often look worse than they actually turn out to be.

And your qualifications for this statement are?

i have none...
only my own experiences and a friends experience. Similar facial wounds, similar stitches like the ones above, and left with a big scar. That is all.

Shit, Tom, just seen this - that's fucking rough mate. I hope you extract your vengeance, in this world or the next. Meanwhile, that scar will look pretty cool.

Re what someone said about the MIB - I don't know if they get involved with car/bicycle interfaces, but if they do it's well worth following up. I got taken out by an unisured, untaxed and unlicensed minicab driver who had no driving license and was driving someone elses car (!) on my mbike, and got compensation through the MIB. Took a while though - 18 months plus. One thing you'll need to do ( and soon ) is get a third party medical expert to evaluate your scarring. I had a similar gash, but smaller and under my chin which was taken into account when the final compensation sum was calculated. Dunno how to put this but yours is far worse ( visible ) than mine and you should be compensated properly for it. Get a good solicitor on your case - mountains of paperwork.

Heal soon - glad you're not hurt worse.

Sorry to hear about this Tom- but very glad that you are essentially ok.

I think we need to start wearing full face helmets when South of the river!

I hope that you get a result in terms of financial recompense from the driver- this seems to be the only way we'll get people to change their behavior when behind the wheel of a car.

This needs to be a t shirt! Or maybe it is already?

I can have them done by tonight! blue on white?

Ok there's meant to be an image of Jean Luc Picard here saying 'Make It So' (as regards the t shirts) but it doesn't seem to be working so nevermind. Longwinded explanation instead.

I can have them done by tonight! blue on white?

Fair point Dylan, and I don't mind you raising it - I'm not that sensitive about the scarring. The Maxilo Facial surgeon who did the stitching took quite some time over it and really seemed to know what she was doing (she had to put some deep sutures inside the wound to hold it all together, as well as quite a few stitches inside my mouth). I think she put a lot of stitches in to hold it together tightly and minimise scarring - so it looks bad now but hopefully will heal ok. I am quite alright with the fact that I may well have permanent scarring (hey, some people pay to get this done!), so I'm happy to see how it all comes out in the wash. My wife is ok with it too which is perhaps more important. I guess I've only got my face for another 70 years or so (if I'm lucky) anyway, so I'm kinda philosophic about it.

Actually Tom's stiches look pretty damn tidy to me and although I'm no expert I have seen eyebrows and top of the cheek-bone gashes stitched worse than that and healed exceptionaly, almost invisibly, well.

Still worth questioning, for the sake of it, as you say - just to get as much knowledge as possible from a surgeon or somone who knows this stuff inside out but it does look very tidy to me. Bearing in mind these things often look worse than they actually turn out to be.

That's shit Tom, I wish you all the best, get well quickly.

Ouch. Heal up soon, and I hope the legals go your way - sounds you're pretty much ont top of that side of things.

FWIW, I made at least that bad a mess of my face when I was 18 and thanks to good surgery and aftercare the scars were pretty much invisible a couple of years later. I got a lot of treatment with this range of stuff, which is brilliant at prevent keloid scarring (if pricey): http://www.royka.co.uk/english/products.html but not through that place - a family friend did his dermatology training under Des Fernandes and though he now practices as an Oncologist he sorted me out.