Hydrogen therapy helped Fie get back on her bike quickly after a severe crash
After a fractured femur, professional cyclist Fie Østerby used molecular hydrogen to support her recovery.
In May 2023, professional cyclist Fie Brandborg Østerby crashed during an important race in Spain. It was a rainy day, and the route had a stretch of gravel road. Fie reached the asphalt road after the gravel road and was at the front of the peloton. At this point, she was about 10 seconds behind the riders in front of her. She had ambitions of winning this race. Instead, she suddenly woke up lying in the middle of the road, confused and wet. It was cold. She had a collar around her neck and could not feel her legs. She knew immediately that something was very wrong.
Fie was rushed to the hospital. The doctors performed all kinds of tests and X-rays. Her femur was broken in four places, and several bones in her face were fractured. She had deep cuts on her face. She was immediately admitted and had to undergo surgery on her leg. She had never experienced a crash this severe before.
"I have never crashed so seriously that I had to be hospitalised and undergo surgery. I asked the doctors if I really needed surgery. The doctor believed I did, because otherwise, I wouldn't have a leg for a long time. It was really bad," says Fie.
Fie received hydrogen right from the start of her course of treatment
The day after the crash, surgery was performed on Fie's leg, and on the second day, she begins inhaling molecular hydrogen (H₂) at the hospital. Her boyfriend, Bekim Christensen, has brought one of their machines to the hospital.
Both have been inhaling H₂ and drinking hydrogen-rich water for several years, so she is familiar with it.
"I started with hydrogen two days after the crash. It was an insane experience. I had been sitting in a chair for a couple of hours, and my leg was rock hard. I have never experienced anything like it. It was heavy and filled with fluid. I inhaled hydrogen for an hour, and then suddenly I had to pee. I peed five times in an hour. After the first hour, my leg was like butter. It was amazing what a difference it made."
After four days at the hospital Fie is allowed to come home. From her sickbed at home, she begins to inhale 600 ml/min of hydrogen for 5–10 hours a day. Slowly Fie begins to heal and see improvement. She gradually reduces her hours of inhalation to about 6 hours a day.
After just 19 days, Fie is back on the bike
Fie is healing faster than anyone could have hoped for, and already after 19 days, she began cycling indoors for the first time again, and five weeks later, she was already back on the bike outside.
"I am convinced that inhaling hydrogen has had a huge effect on me."
Fie points out that there are several contributing factors to her rapid recovery because, in addition to inhaling hydrogen, she has made sure to drink plenty of water, as she normally does, and she is young, eats extremely healthily, and is in really good shape.
"I can feel that I respond well to training. Before the crash, I trained for 18-20 hours a week. In recent weeks, I have trained for 11-13 hours. I am not as tired as one might think. I also inhaled hydrogen before my injury, which has definitely affected my training and the fact that I have been [healthy/active]."
"I have never had such severe wounds and was very worried about how the wounds on my face would turn out. Some of them were quite deep and very swollen. But it went really fast. When the scabs fell off, it had healed so nicely.
Around day 11, everything was gone. I believe hydrogen had an effect there too," says Fie Brandborg Østerby.
“I feel I am back”
"Before my injury, I didn't feel the effect of hydrogen in the same way I do now. But it is probably a case of the more injured you are, the more you can feel the effect."
"I have also thought 'I wonder if I should stop using hydrogen for one day and see what happens' - but I don't even want to do that, because I am so convinced that it helps me so much. Now that I am finally training, I feel it is even more important. Because now I am pushing my body. So, I don't even want to try. I am convinced it has such a major effect."
After only two months, Fie is practically fit again, and her leg has healed surprisingly quickly. Of course, she was not 100% ready after 2 months; there were still some positions and things that required longer recovery time, but in the podcast Frihjul, you can hear how things are going today, where she is fully back on the bike and once again heading up over the hilltops as a tour guide for the company Bikecampspain.com
In the podcast series Frihjul, you can hear Fie Østerby and Bekim Christensen themselves talk about their use of hydrogen, but also about their journey from Denmark to today living in Spain, making a living from cycling, and organizing cycling trips through their company Bike Camp Spain.
