“Täve” Schur falls from the roof at the age of 92 – emergency surgery
As of 3:53 p.m
A life dedicated to cycling: Gustav Adolf “Täve” Schur is still in the saddle. Now the 92-year-old has to take a break from training
Source: pa/Jörg Carstensen/dpa
“Täve” Schur had probably taken on too much: the cycling legend climbed onto the roof of his shed and fell. An emergency operation saved his life. The doctors are amazed at the health of the 92-year-old cyclist.
An the end, Gustav Adolf Schur, affectionately known as “Täve”, was still cracking jokes. “At the DHfK in Leipzig, I used to practice forward and backward somersaults as a young athlete. But it wasn’t quite enough for that when I took off from the roof,” said the 92-year-old Schur, who was able to laugh again after an emergency operation in the Magdeburg University Clinic.
At his house in Heyrothsberge near Magdeburg, the pensioner first climbed onto the eight-meter-high roof and cleaned the gutters, then the shed was two meters high. Suddenly he slipped and landed painfully on his side, breaking eight ribs. Neighbors and friends called the ambulance. “There was a man with a mask in front of me and said: We have to operate,” Schur told the “Magdeburger Volksstimme”.
Gustav-Adolf Schur (centre) at the cycling world championship for road amateurs on August 13, 1960 on the Sachsenring near Hohenstein-Ernstthal
Source: pa/dpa/DB ZB
Professor Thorsten Walles, head of the University Hospital for Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, and his team saved the life of the cycling idol in an emergency operation because a rib had injured the lung. “But a 92-year-old is not operated on that easily. You have to be pretty sure that the patient’s overall condition allows for an intervention and that anesthesia doesn’t make the process even more dangerous,” said the doctor, emphasizing that Schur was in surprisingly good condition and biologically younger.
Schur wants to do without racing bikes
After an hour and a half operation, it was done, after nine days of inpatient treatment, the nine-time GDR athlete of the year was allowed to leave the hospital. Walles then said in conclusion that he had never had such a patient on the ward “nor such a prominent one at that”. The two-time Peace Ride winner Schur, who was the first German to win the World Championships for amateurs in 1958, wants to be a bit more cautious from now on, he prefers to “ride a bike with high handlebars” instead of his racing bike.
Despite his many achievements, Schur is not a member of the German Sports Hall of Fame. Critics accuse him of glorifying the injustices of the GDR. In the past, Schur had, among other things, denied the state’s forced doping in the GDR and made statements on the legitimacy of the building of the Wall and the shooting order at the inner-German borders.
