FLAGLERLIVE | NOVEMBER 21, 2014

Motorcycles have always to some degree been part of Shane Kitchens’ life. They were always in the background. At the time he met his wife Kattie, Shane was a motocross racer. Orlando’s Supercross was one of their first dates nine years ago. Kattie’s parents also own Tri City Cycles, a motorcycle shop in Flagler Beach. Shane helped out there a few years back, notably when the economy tanked, causing him to close his screening business. When the economy improved, he was able to reopen Platinum Pool and Patio Screening. Then a motorcycle took center stage in his life, in the worst way. It was just past midnight the morning of August 3, a Sunday. Kitchens was crossing State Road A1A near South 16th Street, a few blocks from his home in Flagler Beach.

A 1996 Honda Shadow struck him as if he weren’t there. He was evacuated by air to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach, in critical condition. He would be in a coma for a month. Brian Freedman, the 24–year-old Ormond Beach resident who struck him, was also injured, but less seriously. Kitchens had a traumatic brain injury. He had a broken tibia and fibula, a broken pelvis, sternum, coccyx, broken ribs on both sides, and kidney and liver lacerations. He doesn’t remember the accident. He doesn’t remember the day before the accident. He remembers waking up in the hospital, full of hardware, with lots of questions. “Will I ever get back to work” was one of them. Then there was the near-$1 million in hospital bills: the cost of the helicopter ride to the hospital alone was $24,000, he says. “And then to find out I got hit by a motorcycle was unreal…”

Read the full article here: http://flaglerlive.com/73019/shane-kitchens-recovery/