Alex Zanardi transferred back to intensive care

Ex-Formula One driver, two-time CART champion and Paralympic champion Alex Zanardi has been transferred back to intensive care after falling into unstable condition.

On 19 June 2020, Zanardi was involved in a serious road accident while competing in the Obiettivo tricolore handcycling race, near Siena. After being transferred to hospital, Zanardi underwent three hours of neurosurgery and maxillofacial surgery before being placed in a medically-induced coma.

The Italian has undergone two more operations since. The doctors of the 53-year-old who raced for Jordan, Minardi, Lotus and Williams issued a positive statement on Tuesday, announcing that Zanardi was moved to a rehabilitation center after he was progressively brought out of coma. However, on Friday, he has been transferred to the intensive care unit of the Milan San Raffaele hospital due to his "unstable clinical conditions."

Claudio Zanado, the health director of the Valduce Hospital where Zanardi has been since the beginning of this week said that the Italian’s condition has made it necessary to bring him back into intensive care.

"Today, in the face of the instability of the clinical conditions of patient Alex Zanardi, and after appropriate consultations with Dr. Franco Molteni, head of the Department of Specialist Rehabilitation Villa Beretta where the patient had been hospitalised since 21 July, and the reference specialists, the transfer of the athlete was ordered.

"Adequate means and adequate assistance were used at the Intensive Care Department of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. As of now, it is specified that no further information on the case will be released,” Zanado added.