His secondary insurance, with USA Cycling, paid $25,000 to the Hospital for Special Surgery and his surgeon there. Health Net has paid approximately $27,000 to Lehigh Valley, according to Gaimon. He had additional bills from various physicians. Total bills: $151,804 from Lehigh Valley Health Network and $49,526 from the Hospital for Special Surgery. He also had a secondary health insurance policy with USA Cycling. He paid about $500 a month for his insurance policy with Health Net through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange. The patient: Phil Gaimon, 35, a former professional cyclist, a YouTuber and blogger who earns most of his income through sponsorships. He chronicled the whole ordeal on his social media channels, and soon he was recuperating - painfully, but successfully - back home. He also needed surgery on his scapula (shoulder blade), which he said felt "like a collapsed taco." But that surgery would happen days later, after he was discharged from the Pennsylvania hospital and a friend helped him find a surgeon in New York. Emergency doctors admitted the athlete, and he underwent surgery on his collarbone. and Europe.Īn ambulance whisked him to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa., which is part of the health system that sponsored the cycling event. The result: a fractured collarbone, five broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a broken scapula - injuries worse than any he had suffered in the 10 years he had raced on pro road teams in the U.S. In a sprint with a pack of riders at the velodrome track in eastern Pennsylvania, Gaimon sailed over his handlebars after colliding with a fellow racer. "A chance at a second career in racing."īut his Olympic dreams were short-lived. "It was a dream come true," said Gaimon, 35. At the time, Gaimon was making a name for himself - and money - by mountain racing, and he was setting records. The coach needed speed for a four-man event.
He had retired from competitive road cycling three years earlier, but a recruiting call came in the spring of 2019 from a coach of the USA Cycling track team. Gaimon knows accidents are, unfortunately, part of the sport.
It was a race in Pennsylvania that could have sent cyclist Phil Gaimon to the Tokyo Olympics instead, a serious crash landed the Californian in two hospitals on the East Coast. The result: a fractured collarbone, five broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung, a broken shoulder blade and huge medical bills. He sailed over the handlebars and hit the ground hard. Phil Gaimon was racing for a spot in the Olympics when he crashed with a fellow cyclist.
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