A month after a cycling accident left a 39-year-old Ladson man lying on a Johns Island road with a crushed face, nearly severed arm and broken foot, he's back at work part time and ready to make a special appearance Sunday at one of his favorite events, the Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series.

On June 29, Stephen Thompson, a popular fitness equipment and bicycle repairman known as "The Bike Medic," joined one of his cycling buddies, Dr. James Scheer, for their regular early morning, 27-mile ride on the rural roads of Johns Island.

They were a few miles into the ride when they turned onto Old Pond Road, a road where they never encountered much car traffic, and rode close to the white line on the right side of the road.

Nobody really knows what happened next.

Scheer said he recalls being in front of Thompson, feeling Thompson's front tire touching his back tire, and then hearing a pop. Scheer thought one of their bike tires had blown out.

Then, he looked back.

To his horror, Scheer saw Thompson's body in the road and a pick-up truck slowing down in the background. Thompson's left arm looked as if it had been severed. Blood gushed from his arm and face. Scheer and others speculate that Thompson lost control of his bike, veered into the middle of the road and was struck by the oncoming pick-up's side mirror.

"My initial thought was that Stephen was dead," says Scheer, a family doctor. "I couldn't believe that one of my buddies was dead."

Quickly snapping out of his shock, Scheer went into "doctor mode" and knew he had to slow the bleeding for Thompson to have a chance. Some passers-by stopped, including an intensive care unit nurse coming home from a night shift at the Medical University Hospital. They managed to get a tourniquet on the arm.

Within 30 minutes, an ambulance was delivering Thompson to a medical helicopter that landed in a cleared area on the island. Scheer felt a glimmer of hope when he heard on a radio that Thompson's pulse rate was a remarkably calm 70 beats per minute.

Doctors at the Medical University Hospital worked on Thompson for 12 hours that day. They reattached his arm and torn pectoral muscle, put numerous plates in his face, wired his broken jaw shut and put a cast on his right foot. He spent the next week in intensive care, waking up a week later and recalling nothing about the accident.

Today, the self-employed, uninsured Thompson faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, including multiple surgeries in the future to rebuild his nose and face andrestore nerves to his arm.

Faced with bills and worried about losing clients, Thompson returned to working part time about two weeks ago. He is unable to do the work himself but has been able to instruct friends or family members who tag along with him on what to do.

His girlfriend of four years, Kelly Carignan, said Thompson has had his ups and downs in the past month, but that "he has amazed the heck out of all of us." She added he has kept his sense of humor, recently seeing if a magnet would stick to his face because of all the metal plates in it. When the magnets didn't stick, Thompson joked, "They must be made out of titanium."

She marvels at his attitude, considering that a year before this accident, Thompson suffered injuries when a drunk driver hit him at a rest stop in Virginia.

As for the more serious accident on Johns Island, Thompson has found that he can count on some friends to help him out. The local triathlon and cycling community started a fund to help him with his expenses. On July 11, local triathletes participating in the Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series No. 2 race donated $2,500 toward the fund and the Charleston Triathlon Club matched it.

Thompson has been a regular at the sprint series in the last half dozen years. As "The Bike Medic," he offered last-minute repair jobs for nominal fees before rushing off to participate in triathlons himself.

At the invitation of triathlon director Paul King, Thompson will appear at the sprint triathlon Sunday at James Island County Park as the official starter.

"He came so close to losing his life ... I think having him start the race will serve as an inspiration to us all," King said.

WANT TO HELP?

Donations can be sent to: Stephen Thompson Recovery Fund, c/o SC Federal Credit Union, PO Box 190012, North Charleston, SC 29419-9012, Acct # 1162084-71. See charlestontriathlonclub.com for more information.

Contact David Quick at dquick@ postandcourier.com or 937-5516.