Update on Felipe Massa

As we hear further details from Hungary, yesterday’s partly contradictory statements about Felipe Massa’s condition after the freak accident the Ferrari driver suffered on his final lap in stage 2 of the qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix become a bit clearer. I was particularly critical of the fact Ferrari rubbishing a surgeon’s statement. You can’t help to think, there’s something wrong.

As a matter of fact Felipe Massa was very agitated when extracted from the cockpit and had to be stablized and sedated to make him calmer. Also the tracheotomy has been confirmed. He then was taken to the track’s medical center and the first evaluation was that he was awake, recognized familiar faces, but was clearly confused.

That he was awaken and talking doesn’t lessen the severety of the injury. The skull had colapsed over his left eye, a deep wound in the flesh was less worrying. While he was stable when airlifted to AEK hospital, upon arrival the driver began to have spasms and feeling uncomfortable, apparently due to increasing preassure on the brain because of a swelling.

While at the track’s medical center Felipe Massa had spoken to his wife over his brother’s mobile, asking for his personal doctor Dino Altmann to fly over to Budapest together with his family. But as his state threatened to become serious upon arrival at the hospital, the AEK’s medical director Peter Bazso and chief surgeon Lajos Zsiros decided on an immediate operation.

The operation went well and without complications. What then happened is that late in the afternoon the doctors declared that Felipe Massa had arrived in a life-threatening condition, thus justifying the emergency intervention. The operation went well, his condition was described as serious, but stable and he was kept in an artificial coma. The Associated Press reports spreaded Saturday night obviously only pointed out the life-threatening bit, not that this had been put under control.

However, there’s still reason for concern as any skull trauma cannot be taken lightly, there can still arise complications. The brain scan made this morning, when Felipe was awaken for a short while, seems to make clear that a feared brain damage seems now unlikely as his condition remained stable over night. Head traumas are classified from 1 to 15. 1 and 2 are fatal, 15 means no whatsoever concerns over the rehabilitation of the patient. Felipe Massa’s state has been classified as Level 14 by the surgeon. So far it looks like all will go well. Time will tell all the rest.