More surgery for Kubicaposted in F107 | 02 | 2011
RENAULT FORMULA ONE racer Robert Kubica will undergo more extensive surgery as the battle to re-establish full mobility in his right hand continues following yesterday's high speed rally crash.
The 26-year-old Pole, who lost control of his S2000 Skoda Fabia car just a few kilometres into the opening stage of the Ronde di Andora rally in Italy, underwent seven-hours of surgery in the Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure.
Today Kubica was woken from his induced coma and responded well to instructions. His first words were to ask about the condition of his co-driver, Jakub Gerber, who was uninjured in the crash.
Kubica though faces a long battle to recover the fitness which will allow him to return to F1 action. In addition to the injuries to his right hand, which was almost severed in the accident, he also sustained compound fractures to his right elbow and shoulder, as well as more to his right leg.
Today Dr Giorgio Barabino, the director of the trauma centre at the hospital said Kubica will remain in intensive therapy for at least another day, but that initial signs are positive.
"The patient will stay in intensive care for 24 to 48 hours," he said. "We are optimistic, anyway, since he is responding very well to treatment. Obviously he feels a lot of pain, but it couldn't have been any different.
"After the crash, Robert was taken to the trauma centre with the maximum hemorrhagic shock. The first phase of stabilisation was long and difficult, and it carried on in the operating theatre. Wounds-wise, there was large bleeding which was difficult to control.
"He is coming out of sedation and is responding well. He shows good breathing autonomy, but lung complications may arise. We'll see in the next hours. In any case, the hemorrhage is out of danger."
The injuries are to Kubica's right hand, the same one which was fitted with metal plates following his Formula 3 crash in 2003. Today hand specialist Dr Igor Rossello, who assisted in Kubica's latest surgery, said the Renault F1 driver has responded well to the initial treatment.
"The patient arrived here presenting an extremely complex trauma, with lesions at several levels," he said. "Our first priority was to keep the limb alive, and this is a goal we have reached. The hand is warm, vascularised and is not swollen.
"The second part of the operation was reconstructing the anatomy of the limb, since the tendons were completely severed. Then we moved on to padding the nerve lesions and we managed to recuperate the two main nerves of the hand, which were severed too.
"Today I've medicated Robert and the hand is, at the moment, in fine conditions to the extent that the patient was able to do some simple movement of the fingers, which gives good hope. We'll see how it evolves. At the moment it's difficult to make predictions."
But while the news is more positive for Kubica's recovery followinbg the original concern yesterday that he would lose his hand, the hospital's director of orthopaedics Dr Francesco Lanza confirmed he will require further surgery as the initial operation was focused purely on preserving the functionality of the hand and stabilising blood loss.
"The patient will have to undergo more surgery: not only on the parts already treated, but also for other problems and traumas he suffered, for which we couldn't work on because of the emergency," he said. "The important thing was to stabilise the patient and to pad the biggest wounds.
"For the fractures suffered on his leg, he will need at least three or four months to allow the bone to set back together."
It's clear now Kubica will miss most, if not all, of the 2011 F1 season and Renault F1 team principal Eric Boullier is encouraged by his driver's progress. The Frenchman is also remaining positive, predicting his No1 driver will not be out for the 12 months originally feared.
"Robert is doing better this morning," he said. "There has already been some good communication with the doctors. Obviously when you have a big crash like he had yesterday, doctors always predict the worst case scenario. It took seven hours in the surgery room to repair his hand and his arm, but this morning it is really fine; they needed 24 hours to make sure it recovered completely and it looks like this morning they are all happy."
Test and reserve driver Bruno Senna will take up responsibilities in the team at this week's four-day test at Jerez, and Boullier confirmed the team is considering its options for the start of the season.
"We have already started to think about contingency plan, he is definitely out for a couple of months," Boullier continued. "The recovery will be quicker than one year but today it is a bit too early to know exactly how long he will need."
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Jim McGill