Triathlete dies after bike crash in Santa Barbara

Barbara Warren, one of the world's elite endurance athletes in her age group and one-half of a well-known pair of triathlete twins, has died after breaking her neck in a bike crash at the Santa Barbara Triathlon. She was 65.

Warren, of San Diego, died Tuesday at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital when her family told doctors to take her off a ventilator, her twin sister Angelika Drake told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Warren crashed her bike on a downhill road about halfway through the 34-mile cycling section of the race on Saturday, race director Joe Coito said.

Warren was paralyzed from the neck down and was breathing with the aid of the ventilator.

Drake said her sister told the family by blinking and nodding that she wanted to die.

"I talked to her and she nodded over and over and over again. She wanted to leave," Drake said. "No athlete would like to have a life with only their eyes talking."

Warren's two daughters and her husband Tom were also with her at the hospital when she died.

Warren won her age group in the 2003 Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii. She competed in the race, the world's top triathlon, 13 times and finished in the top five in her age group eight times.

The two sisters alternated riding bikes in the Race Across America, covering 2,983 miles in less than 10 days.

Warren also competed in a seven-day race across the Sahara Desert, and finished a triple Ironman in France that included a 7.2-mile swim, 336-mile bike ride and 78.6-mile run.

Warren was well-loved among younger triathletes.

Michellie Jones, who won a triathlon silver medal in the 2000 Olympics and won the 2006 Ironman World Title, was also a twin who remembered her fondly.

"She always asked about my sister," Jones said. "She understood the bond."

Warren's twin said she lay next to her sister as she died.

"My heart and my soul are gone," Drake said. "She was everything in my life."

Source: http://www.sacbee.com/114/story/1193275.html

Further Information

Triathlete Barbara Warren suffers broken neck

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported today that endurance athlete Barbara Warren of San Diego suffered a broken neck Saturday while competing in the Santa Barbara triathlon. The 65-year old Warren crashed during the bike segment of the race and had no movement below the neck since then. She is currently in the Intensive Care Unit at The Cottage hospital in Santa Barbara.

Warren broke the ondontoid bone and the C2 cervical vertebrae according to Mac Larsen, an Alvarado Hospital emergency physician, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Warren's husband, Tom Warren was quoted to have said that his wife was conscious and alert but could not talk because she was on a ventilator to assist her breathing.

"Barbara and Tommy are two of my favorite people on the planet. They live and breathe the endurance sports lifestyle and like nothing better than accomplishing something no one thought they could do. If this is true and Barbara is indeed seriously injured, please take a few moments out of your day to pray for Barbara’s recovery," said a stunned Bob Babbitt in an e-mail to the San Diego triathlon community.

Barbara Warren, a psychologist, is a several-time participant and an age-group winner in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii. She has also participated in a multitude of other endurance events including a triple Ironman, the 2,983-mile Race Across America bike race, the 135-mile Badwater footrace across Death Valley and the Marathon des Sables, a seven day run across the Sahara Desert.

Tom Warren won the 1979 Ironman Hawaii.

Source: http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Triathlete_...n_neck_490.html

"No athlete would like to have a life with only their eyes talking."

I really hope she's being misquoted here...

Yeah, that line really bothers me as well.

I also feel myself getting quite angry whenever I hear a person choosing death, rather than being a high level quad - I'm getting a 'Million Dollar Baby' moment in my head and I really hate it.

I guess it's down to a question of personal choice and how much value one puts on life itself - it would bother me if I had to interpret someone blinking as a request to die.

It is all down to the patient's right to chose, forcing unwanted medical treatment is unproductive on both sides and can be seen as abuse. Certainly in the UK the patient would have to be deemed competent to make such a descision, i'm assuming the same goes for the US. It's a little be more indepth than relying on a few blinks.

Trin, I was just going to say that. My Granddad chose to pass away in February after being in a ventilator for 4 months due to a collapsed lung complicated by emphysema. It took a week for the doctors to be satisfied that he was competant to make that decision then he died 2 weeks later. I agree with those who say that it's a very personal choice and quality of life is relative but wonder if this was all a bit quick (or maybe those doctors just have b**ls to allow people voluntary euthanasia?).

i agree with her, what kind of life would that be ?...i remember when i could only communicate by blinking, and if i hadn't been so drugged up...i would have blinked "turn off my vent"....i hope shes in the place her personal faith told her shed be......

My heart goes out to the Warren family. What a terrible thing to have to be faced with. But mostly for her twin sister. I have 3 sisters and I would hate to have to deal with that myself.

I have a friend who is in the progressed stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and he can only communicate by moving his eyes left to right or up and down. He uses a computer with laser mechanisim to go online and surf the net. He doesn't like what he has to deal with, but he holds out hope that every day he's alive he has the chance for a cure to be found and he can resume his life as he once did. His wife is by his side at all times, and she too is grateful for each day.

I think it's all a matter of individual choice. That's one reason we should all have a living will in place before any situation arises that we might need it. I personally would not want to be kept alive by artificial life support. But, that's my choice.
~Stella

Completely a million dollar baby moment.

She couldnt have been thinking clearly, and if she was .. she had to have been misinformed. Kinda soon to make a decision like that I would think.

stella is exactly right...protect yourself and your loved ones with a living will...make yourself clear and dont force others to do what they hope you wanted.....a living will is cheap and free to those who can't afford.....its selfish not to have one, and i don't think against any faith

Making a decision like this can only be made on an individual basis - like (when you're born) you have a right to live - you should have the right to choose to die - if that be your wish...

What did she base this descision on her recent experience of quadriplegia?

It was far far too soon and I wouldn't want my loved ones to have doctors like that who clearly dont value our lives. I respect it was her descision but they had aduty to help her wait.

It isn't huge leap from " I wouldn't want to live like that" to " They wouldn't want to live like that" and then "They shouldn't live like that". Thats how it starts, they aren't murdering us they are doing us a favour.The disabled holocaust is barely a generation in the past. My friends mom met Adolph Hitler!