Stéphane Bulle, the doctor of the French alpine ski team, gave news this Saturday about Cyprien Sarrazin, a week after his operation to decompress the intracranial hematoma suffered during his serious fall. The French skier was transferred to Lyon on Friday, and will begin a long rehabilitation process.
“He’s fine,” Stéphane Bulle quickly reassured. Eight days after Cyprien Sarrazin's serious fall during World Cup downhill training in Bormio (Italy), the doctor of the French alpine ski team held a video press conference this Saturday, January 4 to answer questions about the health of the French skier, but also about his recovery and his future while his season is already over.
Helicoptered to an Italian hospital, doctors quickly diagnosed him with an acute subdural hematoma inside the skull and operated on him the day after his accident. “This hematoma quickly worsened and led to compression. In agreement with the neurosurgeons, we made a hole in the skull to drain the blood inside the hematoma. It is relatively serious,” said describes Stéphane Bulle.
Long months of rehabilitation planned
“He is conscious, he is just extremely tired. And he knows very well what happened to him,” he added, confirming in passing the repatriation of Cyprien Sarrazin to France, to Lyon on Friday: “It affected him Really relieved.” The French skier still remains hospitalized in a neurosurgery department, in one of the rare clinics to perform intracranial surgery and is now preparing for “a certain period of recovery” and rehabilitation.
“We are not at all on the time that we can have for a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligaments. Today, we are on much longer things. We are talking in months, we are absolutely not talking about a recovery in weeks, that's irrelevant. We're going to start allowing him to do the things that everyone does: sit on the edge of a bed, eat properly, stand up,” explained Stéphane Bulle.
A return to competition possible? “That’s our goal.”
The question of a return to competition for Cyprien Sarrazin is therefore largely premature at the moment, and definitively buried for the current season, which began in October in Sölden (Austria) and which will end at the end of March. “I don't know (when he'll come back), but everything we're going to put in place is for him to come back. We'll be there to support him. We have absolutely no idea where he'll come back. will lead it, but that’s our goal,” assured the French team doctor.
“It is very complicated to give the stages of his rehabilitation since the definitive assessment of the potential injuries has not yet been made,” he added. “In the coming weeks, we will try to define the skills he already has, then see how to get him to regain the others. But it is much too early. He is doing well, but he is very, very tired. He really has a hard time communicating anymore.”
“He has double vision”
Cyprien Sarrazin's rehabilitation, still very far from returning to normal, will also concern his vision, which has become “double” since his accident. “He still has difficulty opening his eyes because he suffers from diplopia: the reflexes which coordinate the two eyes are a little disturbed following the hyperpressure in the skull. These are things which can be re-educated. In the coming weeks, we will have to work on this.”
After clarifying the situation surrounding Cyprien Sarrazin's state of health, the French team doctor also praised the work of the Italian doctors immediately after the accident: “The Italians were really good. The care that he had in the hospital were of very good quality, with incredible care and humanity.”
