Zanardi undergoes further surgery

Alex Zanardi has undergone a successful craniofacial reconstruction surgery, and his cognitive and motor rehabilitation remains ongoing at San Raffaele hospital in Milan.

The two-time CART champion and multiple Paralympic medalist, who sustained severe head and facial injuries in a crash during a handbike race in Siena in June, was initially released to a rehabilitation center in July, but was rushed back into intensive care just two days later.

According to an update from the hospital, Zanardi is “subjected to sessions of cognitive and motor rehabilitation, with the administration of visual and acoustic stimuli, to which the patient responds with transient and initial signs of interaction with the environment”. Doctors reiterated that there remains a “persistence of a complex general clinical picture”, and cautioned that it is still impossible to speculate on the 53-year-old’s long-term prognosis.

Further craniofacial surgery is scheduled for the coming weeks.