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Alex Zanardi, who has been kept in the Intensive Care Unit of the Santa Maria alle Scotte Polyclinic Hospital in Siena, Italy, since June 19, has undergone a second brain surgery after a worsening of his situation.
The former pilot of Formula 1 and winner of four Paralympic gold medals, he suffered very severe brain damage after losing control of his handbike during an exhibition and colliding with a truck coming from the opposite direction of the road.
Zanardi, 53, underwent an emergency operation and has remained in the ICU since then. This Monday, a CT scan was performed that showed an evolution of the pilot’s condition that made it necessary to resort to a second neurosurgery.
The intervention lasted two and a half hours, and after that Zanardi returned to the ICU, where he remains sedated and intubated. “His conditions remain stable from the cardiorespiratory and metabolic point of view, serious from the neurological point of view,” reveals the medical report, the first since June 25. “Your prognosis is reserved.”
Zanardi he drove a total of 41 grand prizes in Formula 1 between 1991 and 1999. In between he also made a career in the American CART Formula, where he was champion in 1996.
In 2001, on the Lausitz circuit, a terrible accident caused both legs to be amputated. He did not leave motorsport, and only two years later he debuted with BMW at the World Touring Car Championship, where he remained until 2008.
Since then, Zanardi tried his fortune in the handbike and he won two gold medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Four years later, in Rio, he added a new gold and silver medals to his record.
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