Massa crashes after being hit by heave spring

[Richard]

He does look very good after the fears reported by the doctors in the days after the crash. Certainly no sign of the neck brace you'd expect for the reported basal skull fracture (the injury that killed Roland Ratzenberger). Thank God for HANS.

Actually, its worth reading the HANS article on wiki for a sober reminder that motor sport is dangerous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HANS_device -- F1 introduced HANS in 2001 following a single basal skull fracture death in 1994. In NASCAR there were 4 deaths in a 14 month period up to Feb 2001. What is worrying is that many NASCAR drivers resisted the introduction of HANS until that 4th fatality.

To give some context on recovery from a depressed skull fracture (I think that's what Massa's has) , Petr Čech took 3 months to return to football (soccer) after a similar injury. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_%C4%8Cech#Head_injury

I hope Massa doesn't come back too soon. Possibly start to build himself up in winter testing.... although a cameo at Interlagos might be too tempting???

... but I wouldn't be surprised if headaches and poor vision keep him out until 2011!

[jonathan189]

Video interview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 180742.stm

[djos]

There's an interview as well:-
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/08/ ... ipe-massa/

Jezuz, he is a very lucky boy that the impact wasn't directly on his eyeball!!!

[i70q7m7ghw]

Remember he had an operation, alot of what you are seeing will actually be where the incision was made to remove the bone fragments, the initial gash can be seen in the pictures at the start of this thread and is a bit smaller that what we can see in these pictures.

[DaveKillens]

First there was the accident itself, and then the critical first 24 hours when brain damage such as swelling or bleeding could have made this a dangerous situation. Now, Massa is stabilized, and his road to recovery begins. But first, he has to go home and do some healing. Then the doctors need to assess the brain for any damage. Then Massa goes on from there.
It's a great relief that Massa appears to be good shape, and I didn't observe any signs such a slurring of words or memory confusion.

[andartop]

I seriously doubt the doctors at Budapest would have released him so soon if they suspected brain damage. And I seriously doubt he would be getting on a plane today without any protection or support around his neck if the reported skull base fracture was anything serious.
I'm not being overly optimistic, but I just try to go by whatever we have confirmed. As I've been saying all along in this thread from the available confirmed information it appears Felipe's injuries were really not as bad as many feared. True, they could have been much much worse.
Even the swelling in the pictures and the video released today doesn't look that bad: you can get much worse from a wisdom tooth!
Here's hoping Felipe will be back at Interlagos and will win the race!

[Callum]

"you should have seen the other guy" he says

[hillman]

Not too bad when you're expecting the worst. Go Felipe.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 645428.htm

[xpensive]

Terribly ugly stitching though, where was this performed, anyone?

[timbo]

Terribly ugly stitching though, where was this performed, anyone?

well, yes, I thought so too, but I'd reserve my judgement before someone with medical background (preferably in surgery) comments on this.

[jddh1]

Terribly ugly stitching though, where was this performed, anyone?

I was gonna say the same thing.

Although the wound could've been wide open and swollen at the time, so we can't really know. I can foresee a second go at the stitching for Felipe.

[andartop]

It looks quite nice to me! Notice the quality of healing at the end closer to the ear.
This is the most commonly used and versatile technique (simple interupted), it's fairly easy to do, is quite strong, allows for adjustments during the procedure - in order to align the edges as close as possible - and is reportedly less likely to cause swelling and impair the blood circulation (which might cause necrosis of the soft tissues).
Of course he's going to have some plastic surgery as well at some point to reduce the scarring, but I wouldn't think it was a sloppy job.

[timd]

After all that i would want just a little scar.

The guys married now anyway so no need to worry about scareing the girls off

[Miguel]

Good news from Marca. It seems Felipe has been released from the hospital one day earlier than expected. I don't know if he has any remaining injury or if his eyesight is as good as before, but he seems to be in really good condition.

BTW: I never read anywhere anything about basal skull fracture in Massa's accident.

[PlatinumZealot]

FrankenMassa!

or

MassaStein!