A traumatic tumble with a terrific outcome

You can take the brake lever out of her leg, but you can’t keep Leslie Lowery away from the trails or off her mountain bike.    

“It was surreal,” said Leslie. “I really didn’t think much was wrong with me when I fell. I only thought about getting back on my bike, but I couldn’t get the bike off me!” 

Moab’s Amasa Back trail is a remote 13.3 mile out-and-back ride that brings many mountain bikers and hikers to the red desert trails of Utah, including Leslie, a 30-year mountain biking aficionado from Denver.  

Early in the morning on Saturday, September 10, 2023, Leslie and a group of friends were cheering a successful summit and making plans to descend back down the trail. No one anticipated she’d end her day at St. Mary’s Regional Hospital in Grand Junction. 

Leslie chose to be at the back of the pack for the descent. As her friends rolled out, Leslie saddled up and followed. “At some point, I must have gone over a ledge leaning too far forward,” she said. “I went over the top of my handlebars and rolled with the bike on top of me.” 

At first, it seemed like a common fall that veteran bikers have likely experienced. But when Leslie couldn’t shake free from her bike, she knew something was amiss. “That’s when I noticed that my front-brake lever was completely inserted into my leg.” 

Indeed, the brake lever had lodged itself in the popliteal fossa, the soft tissue behind the knee. Leslie’s leg was numb, but all she could think about was getting up and finishing her ride. When she realized that wasn’t going to be an option, she reached for her daypack and called her friends up ahead on the trail, but no one answered. 

“I didn’t think to call 911 right away,” said Leslie, “but I did have the thought to call my daughter to get a copy of my new insurance card because I knew I was going to the hospital.” 

When Leslie didn’t arrive at the agreed-upon checkpoint, her friends started back up the trail to look for her. The first to arrive assessed the situation and called 911. The dispatchers told them not to remove the lever from Leslie’s leg, but to cut the lever and brake cable from the bike if possible. 

With another friend’s multitool, they were able to cut the brake line and disconnect the lever from the bike. The air ambulance arrived, and EMTs took over. Leslie’s injury was worse than she knew — the EMTs couldn’t find a pedal pulse, indicating that she was not getting adequate blood flow to her foot.  

After successful vascular surgery to repair the artery in her leg, Leslie shared her story with the caregivers who were eager to know about her trauma.  

“It’s not an everyday type of injury,” quipped Leslie. “I guess a lot of the staff were mountain bikers too! And every one of them gave me top-notch care.”