The French skier returned to France on Friday January 3 after suffering a head injury following a fall during training. If his operation went well and he begins his rehabilitation, his season is over.
The starting point of the most complicated period of his career. French downhiller Cyprien Sarrazin, seriously injured in the head after a fall during training on December 27 in Bormio (Italy), was repatriated to Lyon on Friday January 3. “Cyprien was transferred yesterday [vendredi] in a Lyon hospital, at Médipole, where he is hospitalized in a neurosurgery care department where he will begin his rehabilitation”explained Stéphane Bulle, the doctor of the French alpine ski team, during a videoconference press briefing. Its season in the Alpine Ski World Cup is over, the French Ski Federation (FFS) announced on Saturday January 4.
Victim of a violent fall during the second official training before the downhills and super-G in Bormio, Cyprien Sarrazin, 30, has since been hospitalized in Sondalo (northern Italy) where he underwent surgery to reabsorb an intracranial hematoma. “We're going to start allowing him to do things that everyone does, namely sit, eat, stand. Today, he still has a little difficulty opening his eyes, because he suffers from diplopia, that is to say that the reflexes which coordinate your two eyes are a little disturbed following the high pressure in the skullcontinued the doctor.
“He is very tired, he really has a hard time communicating. When you come out of this quote-unquote coma period, you're really exhausted.”says the caregiver. For the rehabilitation of the Haut-Alpin, world number 2 in downhill last winter, “we are talking about months, we are not at all talking about recovery in weeks”which rules out a return to competition this winter.
“Drill hole”
The downhiller, winner of four races last winter including a resounding double in Kitzbühel (Austria), will continue his rehabilitation at the Henri Gabriel center, still in Lyon, “which really has specificity in neurological rehabilitation for people who have had car accidents, people who have had enormous trauma”said the doctor. “For the definitive assessment of potential lesions [qui sera fait dans les jours à venir, ndlr], I am relatively calm. He seems to be doing really well at the moment.”insisted Doctor Bulle.
Asked whether Sarrazin, 30, could resume his career, the French team doctor was clear: “I have absolutely no idea where this is going to take us. I can't tell you. But anyway, that’s our goal.” During this press point, the French team doctor, who welcomed “very good quality care” carried out by his Italian colleagues, revealed that Sarrazin's situation had deteriorated in the first hours of his hospitalization. “The hematoma [intracrânien] quickly worsened and resulted in what is called compression. In agreement with the neurosurgeons, we made a burr hole. That is to say, we do a suction in the skull to empty the blood inside the hematoma.he explained.
