Strength, Felipe, we are with you. The poignant message on the sign held up by Felipe Massa's Ferrari colleagues as the cars assembled on the grid this afternoon.
The news on his condition is about as good as it could be. He's had another brain scan, which was clear, and he had an incident free night. He was awake for a while this morning but he'll be kept in a medically induced coma for the next 48 hours.
I have had a very limited experience of being around an ICU with a friend with a brain injury and this makes a lot of sense to me. To be honest, I wouldn't be alarmed if they kept him under for a few days longer. It just makes it so much easier for his brain to recover if it doesn't have to work at things like making the body move or breathe or respond to pain. It's a really good sign that he woke up when they wanted him too, though. Although my friend recovered, too, she didn't wake up when they stopped the sedatives, and that was scary.
The thing that really shocked me about ICU was how quiet it was. In hospital dramas, you always hear the bleep of the machines, but it wasn't like that at all. The nurses were fantastic. They don't really get to have a relationship with the patients, but they were brilliant at explaining everything to friends and family.
So far, so good. I'm not chuffed with either the pictures of the injured Massa that are circulating or the sensationalist way in which the papers, and not just the tabloids, Scotland on Sunday, are reporting this. He is not fighting for his life, ok? Massa's doctors expect him to make a complete recovery and I think they probably no more than your average sports journalist.
My thoughts, and I'm sure the thoughts of everyone in F1 are with Massa. Like the sign said, Forza Felipe, siamo con te.
UPDATE: Have just blown a gasket about Sky's sensationalist speculation about Felipe's condition. My advice is to ignore them and get your information from a credible source such as James Allen who's putting updates on both is blog and Twitter feed.
I think it's also amazing that Rubens Barrichello, Massa's friend and fellow Brazilian, is also posting updates on Twitter. I know that all the F1 fans on Twitter are incredibly grateful to him for doing that. He's a good bloke.
3 comments:
i agree - it has been sensationalised when actual reports seem to suggest he is pulling through ok. I hope he will recover over the August break and be back in the car come Valencia.
To be honest, I don't think he'll be back in the car for at least a good 6-8 weeks.
Just heard Sky saying that his injuries are life threatening and trying to sensationalise it. They also got his wife's name wrong - she's Anna Rafaela, not Anna. The reporter said "there's no neurological damage yet".
I tend to look to people like James Allen for credible information. Also Rubens Barrichello is telling us stuff on Twitter which is great. In fact, I might do an update suggesting people follow him.
It's one thing to make a complete recovery and another to be fit enough to race at the level Felipe has been doing. He may well need more surgeries once he's out of imminent danger. I don't expect to see him in the cockpit again this season.
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