Zanardi undergoes more surgery on head injuries

Motorsport and Paralympic hero Alex Zanardi underwent a second round of neurological surgery on Monday, 10 days after being admitted to hospital with severe head injuries sustained in a handbike road accident in Italy.

Two-time Indycar champion Zanardi hit a truck while taking part in a handbike event in Siena on 19 June, leaving him with severe head and facial injuries. He underwent surgery upon admission to hospital and has remained in a medically induced coma since.

In a bulletin issued on Monday by Siena

University Hospital, it was confirmed that Zanardi had undergone a second surgery after a CT scan presented “an evolution in the patient’s state which made it necessary to have a second neurosurgical intervention”. The surgery lasted two and a half hours, before Zanardi returned to the intensive care unit where he remained in a coma.

The hospital reported that Zanardi’s condition “remained stable from the cardiorespiratory and metabolic point of view, serious from the neurological point of view”.

“The intervention carried out represents a step that had been anticipated by the team,” according to the university’s health director, Roberto Gusinu.

“Our professionals will evaluate day by day the evolution of the situation.”

Zanardi has enjoyed a prolific career in handbike racing, winning four gold medals at the Paralympic Games in 2012 and 2016. The 53-year-old ex-formula 1 driver lost both his legs in an Indycar crash at the Lausitzring in 2001, but returned to racing with BMW, for which he has won races in the World Touring Car Championship. More recently he has competed with BMW in the DTM and GT racing, and was set to contest this year’s Italian GT finale.