Moss Shimek ( mshimek )

I was very involved with motorcycle riding. I rode a sport bike but I wasn't like the typical schmuck you see riding around town with no safety gear and being reckless. I always rode with at least a helmet, gloves, long pants, leather jacket, and boots. For me, riding was an inexpensive form of transportation as well as a hobby. I enjoyed pushing the performance limits of my motorcycle. I tested these limits on Sunday mornings (very little traffic) in the Texas Hill Country (out in the boonies). I wore full racing gear on these longer rides; helmet, gloves, full leather suit, and racing boots.

I crashed hard towards the end of one of these longer rides. I lost traction during a high speed left hand turn. My bike slid out form under me and my head hit a curb at about 70 mph. I do not remember the day, all of it, of my crash and quite a while afterwards. I was in a coma for a month and a half. I was CareFlighted to Brackenridge hospital where I was in the ER and ICU for two weeks. I was then transferred to the Texas NeuroRehab Center. I cannot describe what my coma was like. I can only say that I thought I was stuck in a very long nightmare. The one constant was my fiancée, now wife. I "woke up" on 4 December 2001. I was alert for the whole day of the third but I was testing everyone around me because I thought it was a dream. The truth was awful but I at least knew what was going on around me.

I am a grad student at UT Austin and had very good health insurance because of it. I have had a very good recovery and am pursuing my doctorate in mechanical engineering. I want to be a professor when I graduate.

Moss Shimek The University of Texas at Austin

E-MAIL: orig.mossimo@mail.utexas.edu