Former Formula One driver and CART (IndyCar) champion Alex Zanardi remains in an induced coma … [+]
Critically injured former racer Alex Zanardi remains in an induced coma after his third surgery following his hand bike crash in Italy last month.
Fighting serious head injuries, the 53-year-old Zanardi, a national hero in Italy, yesterday underwent five hours of facial reconstruction surgery after his hand bike collided with a truck during a charity race near Siena on June 19.
Zanardi won 15 CART open-wheel races in the US, winning the title in 1997 and 1998. He also raced in Formula One for Jordan, Minardi, Lotus and Williams, with a best finish of sixth, but a major CART crash in Germany in 2001 saw both of his legs amputated above the knees.
Zanardi lost both legs in this crash in the American Memorial CART race at Germany’s Lausitzring in … [+]
Zanardi fought back to take four World Touring Car Championship wins in a modified BMW between 2005 and 2009, then won two gold medals on his handbike at the London Paralympics in 2012, then another gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He also has 12 Paralympic World Championship titles.
The Ferrari Formula One drivers Charles Leclerc and four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel carried messages of support for Zanardi, with #ForzaAlex on the roll hoops of their SF1000 racers.
Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel both carried messages of support for Zanardi on the roll hoops … [+]
Zanardi had emergency neurosurgery at the Siena University Hospital immediately after the crash at high speed, which police say Zanardi struck first with his head.
Zanardi had further neurosurgery on June 29, though there is no word from either the hospital or his family about a long-term prognosis.
“The patient has undergone a new surgery, performed by the professionals of maxillofacial and neurosurgery, aimed at cranio-facial reconstruction and stabilisation of the areas affected by the trauma,” the hospital said in a statement.
“His condition remains stable from the cardio-respiratory and metabolic point of view, [and] severe from the neurological point of view.”
The Zanardi family has declined to release progress reports on the former racer, and has restricted the hospital’s pronouncements thus far until after each surgery and any significant change in his condition.
“The fractures were complex,” the hospital’s Director of Maxillofacial Surgery, Professor Paolo Gennaro, said.
“ This required careful programming that made use of computerised, digital and three-dimensional technologies, made to measure of the patient.
“The complexity of the case was rather singular, even if it is a type of fracture that we routinely face in our center.”
