Former Formula One driver and four-time Paralympic champion Alex Zanardi is in a “critical condition” after undergoing neurosurgery after being involved in a serious road accident in the Italian province of Siena on Friday while taking part in a race on his handbike.<\/p>\n
The fifty-three-year-old was involved in a crash with a lorry in the town of Pienza on Friday and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Siena, where he is on a ventilator in intensive care and “the neurological picture remains serious”.<\/p>\n
His “neurosurgical and maxillo-facial” operation lasted almost three hours.<\/p>\n
The accident according to Sky News Italy happened when Zanardi slipped into the opposite lane where a truck was passing at the time. From what is learned, the pilot reportedly suffered a polytrauma. He was transferred to the Le Scotte hospital in Siena where he arrived with the helicopter.<\/p>\n
Zanardi was taking part in an event called the Obiettivo Tricolore, a journey that sees the participants riding across Italy on handbikes, cycles or wheelchairs.<\/p>\n
Zanardi competed in forty-one Grands Prix in the 1990s and raced for four teams – Jordan, Minardi, Lotus and Williams. The Italian’s best result was a sixth-place finish in the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The Siena\u2019s Santa Maria alle Scotte hospital said in a statement that the fifty-three-year-old Italian, who lost both legs and nearly his life in a 2001 Champ Car crash in Germany, was in a \u201cvery serious\u201d condition.<\/p>\n
A further statement in the early hours of Saturday morning said, \u201cthe Health Directorate of the Aou Senese informs that the patient, subjected to a delicate neurosurgical intervention on the evening of June 19.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSubsequently transferred to intensive care, has stable hemodynamic and metabolic parameters. He is intubated and supported by artificial ventilation while the neurological picture remains serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte Tweeted \u201cYou have never given up and with your extraordinary fortitude you have overcome a thousand difficulties. Come on Alex Zanardi, don\u2019t give up. All of Italy is fighting with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zanardi is a leading Paralympic athlete, having won four gold medals on his handbike in the 2012 and 2016 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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