More news about Zanardi: "We have to be very careful with him"

There is some more known about the situation of Alex Zanardi. The former F1-driver crashed violently last week and since then the Italian is in hospital with a critical condition. This morning the hospital gave an update on the situation of Zanardi, but La Gazzetta Dello Sport got neurosurgeon Giuseppe Oliveri and head of neurosurgery Maurizio Fornari in front of the camera to give more explanations.

"It's a good thing that Zanardi's in good shape. We just have to wait until we can take further steps with him. That can sometimes take weeks," Oliveri explains. According to Fornari, it must have been a severe blow, which could have caused a lot of damage to the brain. "It makes a huge difference if the skull is damaged, since the brain is not in a fixed place in your skull."

Vulnerable patient

Yet Oliveri and Fornari don't want to rush Zanardi's recovery. "He's a vulnerable patient after all. That's why we have to be very careful with what we do". The doctors indicate that they keep a close eye on Zanardi's development and that they keep track of what he is already able to do on his own.

"We have already experienced a number of times that it seems that Zanardi can breathe on his own and is already making contact with his environment". Still, that's not enough for the doctors to wake Zanardi up already. "It's hard to estimate. For the time being we prefer the current approach". In time, Zanardi can wake up from the artificial coma.