Girl at Chuv out of coma, but all three there considered still “in danger”
A Belgian armed forces plane refuels in Sion, at the foot of the mountains; smaller Rega air ambulances gathered 12 of the patients and flew them home to Belgium Friday during the day.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – In an extraordinary development Friday, all but four of the children injured in the bus crash Tuesday 13 March in a Sierre autoroute tunnel were flown back home Friday: 8 of the less injured left the hospital and were flown home Thursday and during the day Friday another 12 were taken home by Switzerland’s Rega emergency air service.
Six flights were required Friday, each lasting about an hour from Sion to Brussels, to fly home the 12 who are recovering from more serious injuries, all of them now in stable condition. Three of the Rega air ambulances (Challenger C-604 airplanes) handled the flights and doctors from the Rega organization spent Thursday night at the Sion hospital preparing the patients and briefing staff.
The children’s families accompanied them home in the air ambulances.
The skies and roads around Sion were busy Friday with numerous ambulances, helicopters and air ambulances moving patients, their families, medical teams and equipment.
Four others will need more time; three not yet out of danger
The child taken to hospital in Bern is stable and out of danger, but the three at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne are still considered to be “in danger” the Valais Hospital spokesperson said late Friday. One of the three, a girl, came out of her induced coma Thursday and is fully conscious, according to a statement from the hospital in Lausanne, but all three suffered multiple fractures and comas were induced to deal with neurological damage. The girl has spinal injuries as well.
Rom Houben, a 46 year-old Belgian man who was diagnosed as being in a coma after a car accident in 1983, has been discovered to have normal brain functions after a scan was performed in 2006. In the beginning, “I cried out, but nothing came out”, he says. The day his brain was discovered to be intact was like “being born again.” He says he eventually learned to live with the opinion that others had of him. His mother has said that she always believed her son could communicate.
Houben, though paralyzed, now communicates with a specially adapted computer keyboard, and is writing a book on his experiences.
Budapest, Hungary (GenevaLunch) - Felipe Massa left hospital and joined his wife Raffaela, six months pregnant, to return by private jet to his home in Brazil. He was seriously injured during the qualifying stages for the Hungarian Grand Prix when a spring that had fallen off compatriot Rubens Barrichello’s car struck his helmet. Massa said that he remembers nothing of the crash and will wait until he sees how he recuperates before deciding whether to return to racing. Michael Schumacher is coming out of retirement to replace Massa in the Ferrari team.
Details: The Times
Budapest, Hungary (GenevaLunch) - It was just like old times as Lewis Hamilton, current Champion drove an almost faultless race, with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkönen second, and Mark Webber third for Red Bull. It was Hamilton’s tenth Grand Prix win, but his first this season.
Fernando Alonso started in pole position in his Renault but was forced to stop at the pits with tire trouble, and then to retire as a front wheel was not properly fitted and later flew off.
Eluana Englaro, age 38, has died in northern Italy. Her death was announced by the clinic caring for her. Englaro had been in a coma since 1992 following a car accident. Her family was able to move her to a clinic in northern Italy early in February 2008 where staff removed her feeding tubes 6 February. She has been at the centre of heated political and religious fighting for several months.
An American heiress, Sunny Von Bulow, has died after 28 years in a coma. She married an Austrian prince and later a Danish lawyer, Claus Von Bulow, and was found unconscious in her bathroom in 1980. She and her second husband made headlines and became the subject of a film, “Reversal of Fortune” (1990): he was convicted then acquitted of trying to kill her. Reuters
