French skier Cyprien Sarrazin, 30, seriously injured in the head after a fall in training on December 27 in Bormio (Italy), was repatriated to Lyon on Friday. His World Cup season is over, the French Ski Federation announced on Saturday.
“Cyprien was transferred yesterday (Friday) to a Lyon hospital, to the Médipole Lyon-Villeurbanne, where he is hospitalized in a neurosurgery care department where he will begin his rehabilitation,” explained during a video press briefing Stéphane Bulle, the doctor of the French alpine ski team.
Victim of a violent fall during the second official training before the downhill and super-G in Bormio, he has since been hospitalized in Sondalo (northern Italy) where he underwent surgery to resolve an intracranial hematoma.
« Iit's really hard to communicate”
“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 hyperpressure in the skull,” the doctor continued.
“He is very tired, he really has a hard time communicating. When you come out of this period of coma in quotes, you are really exhausted,” assured Stéphane Bulle.
Long rehabilitation in Saint-Genis-Laval
For the rehabilitation of the Haut-Alpin, world No.2 in downhill last winter, “we are talking about months, we are not at all about recovery in weeks”, which excludes a return to competition this winter.
The downhiller, winner of four races last winter including a resounding double in Kitzbühel (Austria), will continue his rehabilitation at the Henry-Gabrielle center, located in Saint-Genis-Laval, “which really has specificity in neurological rehabilitation for people who have had car accidents, people who have had enormous trauma,” the doctor said.
“For the final assessment of potential injuries (which will be done in the coming days, Editor’s note), I am relatively calm. He seems to be doing really well at the moment,” Doctor Bulle insisted.
