By KIM ESTES

Four Points News

Steiner Ranch resident John Holsinger is recovering from near fatal injuries sustained in a Labor Day bicycle accident in Georgetown where he fell some 50 feet from a bridge.

“His story is nothing short of a miracle,” said Kyle McKnight, an EMT-P with Williamson County EMS and first responder to the scene.

“I have broken hips, a broken femur, wrists, ribs – I’ve had 11 procedures in seven surgeries. Right now, I can’t stand up, I can’t walk,” said Holsinger, a 52-year-old triathlete, recovering at Seton Medical Center Williamson in Round Rock.

On Sept. 5, Holsinger met up with 50 riders from the Bat City Cycling club for a planned 60 mile bike ride through Northwest Austin.

Going approximately 30 mph at mile 16, a cyclist in front of him blew a tire and caused a domino-like crash.

Hollie Kenney, a fellow Steiner triathlete who is helping Holsinger, said a chain reaction was started with the riders behind the blowout falling too. In the process, Holsinger was pinned between a rider and the bridge railing, which Kenney said is very low and didn’t prevent the fall. She said no one saw him go over, but someone just happen to look down and there he was, laying on his right side. His helmet had come off, she said.

Holsinger and eight additional bikers were injured in the accident which was about two miles south of FM 2338 on Ronald Reagan Boulevard in Georgetown. The two-lane bridge had been ridden repeatedly by Holsinger and his group.

First responder McKnight estimated that Holsinger dropped 50 feet.

“My first concern was that the patient may be dead after falling from such a great height, so I was shocked to see Mr. Holsinger alert and speaking when I first reached him,” said McKnight, adding that he was not aware of what happened but rather only aware that he was critically injured.

“I speculate that he landed flat on his right side, the position in which we found him. This may have helped prevent any sort of critical head injury or spinal cord injury that would have killed him had he landed any differently,” McKnight said.

On examining him, it was clear that Holsinger had several fractures and a collapsed lung. Emergency personnel also suspected there was severe internal bleeding.

Holsinger was airlifted to Seton to reduce transport time, McKnight said.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Holsinger said that at this time he doesn’t remember the accident.

“Saturday (Sept. 17), I finally wake up, and I couldn’t believe I lost a week-and-a-half of my life. I had been unconscious and sedated. It was like waking up from a dream,” he said.

“I didn’t understand what was happening, why I couldn’t move. I didn’t know I was in hospital or had been in an accident.

“When I woke up, the thing I remember was seeing my kids and my ex-wife, Heidi. She brought the kids up to see me,” Holsinger said.

Holsinger is the father of three: Audra Volk, a junior at Colorado University in Boulder, Katherine, a junior at Vandegrift High School and John August, at 6th grader at Four Points Middle School. Holsinger is also treasurer for the Lady Vipers lacrosse team.

Slowly, he is putting events and thoughts about his current situation together. “It takes a while for your brain to make sense of what happen,” said Holsinger.

“I’m a safe rider. I do everything as safe as possible, and I would never expose myself to this,” he said.

Holsinger’s immediate injuries were a collapsed lung, crushed pelvis, open fractures to legs, ankles and elbow as well as multiple breaks in arms, ribs, and two fractures in the spine. His most serious injury was an internal bleed from the mesenteric artery in the abdomen as well as suffering from an aortic dissection. Discovered about a week after the accident, he also has minor spinal injuries and brain damage, specifically brain shearing, according to his GoFundMe page.

Some have told Holsinger that it is due partly to his level of fitness that he survived the accident and is recovering as well as he is.

McKnight agrees that he is recovering well. “I have been in EMS for eight years now and I have never seen someone who has fallen from such a tremendous height not only be alive to talk about it but be expected to make a full recovery.”

However, it appears it will take time. Full recovery is expected to take a year or two.

Holsinger’s medical team has applied to move him to an assisted living center until he becomes weight-bearing and can begin physical therapy.

In the meantime, a fund to assist him with medical expenses has been started at www.gofundme.com/2qumn9g or search John Holsinger Recovery Fund.