Modern Adventure racer Ezra Caudell took to Instagram to give his first personal update since a major crash at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic in August.
The 20-year-old Caudell was left in hospital with major injuries, described as "multi-system trauma" after the crash, which also involved Lotto-Intermarché rider Milan Menten. He remained in hospital for 31 days before he was released earlier this month, and he's now continuing his recovery.
Caudell thanked those who have supported him since the crash and outlined the details of what happened in the "pretty freak accident", which saw him collide with a light pole partway through the 192.2km race, leaving him with several injuries, including to his lungs, brain, spinal cord, and several fractures.
"I want to say huge thanks to my parents, friends, team, and everyone who’s been supporting me and my family so much while I’m dealing with this," he wrote.
"I don’t remember anything about the actual crash personally, because I hit my head real good and don’t have much memory of that day entirely. The first memory I have is from a couple weeks after the crash. The best account of what happened is from the other rider.
"We were bridging to the breakaway, and I either hit a manhole cover or a curb looking back to see the peloton and I lost control, hitting a light pole with the left side of my body."
Caudell raced his first year as a pro this season, taking on 40 race days including Paris-Roubaix, the UAE Tour, and the Arctic Race of Norway. He said that he still has a breathing tube inserted after suffering major lung damage in the crash.
"I damaged my left lung really bad and had a breathing tube put in the ambulance that wasn’t removed until September 9th. Even with the breathing tube, and chest tubes on both sides to keep my lungs inflated, I was still having trouble oxygenating my blood on my own," Caudell wrote.
"The Doctors decided to put me on ECMO, which is basically a machine that takes the blood from your femoral artery, oxygenates it and it goes back in. Like a lung outside of you. They put me on ECMO at Einstein, but had to get me to Thomas Jefferson University for more specialised treatment."
It wasn't only Caudell's lungs which sustained damage in the crash, however. He also suffered a brain injury, a spinal cord injury, and several major fractures, among other injuries.
"The lungs were definitely bad, but I also had a Grade 3 DAI brain injury, Paresthesia of my left arm, orbital facial fracture, fractured rib, multiple fractures in my neck, spinal cord injury and some random stuff," Caudell wrote.
"The lungs took a while to stay up and work on their own, which kept me in the hospital for a while. Moral of the story is poles fight pretty good when you hit 'em!"
Caudell is now on the road to recovery from that laundry list of injuries. He's out of hospital, out of the rehabilitation facility in the Philadelphia area where he was sent afterwards, and is now in outpatient rehabilitation as he continues his recovery.
"Thankfully, Philadelphia has a great hospital that had the resources I needed for a crash like this. I was released exactly a month after the crash in September and sent to a rehabilitation facility to help with my day-to-day functions and starting to get my left arm more mobile!
"I was then released Saturday from rehabilitation and can now head back to Georgia for outpatient rehab while I wait to be cleared to fly in early December! Long Instagram summary of what I’ve been up to haha! Thanks again for everyone’s messages, support, visits, and prayers; it means a lot!"
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