The story of Cyprien Sarrazin resembles a miracle. The French ski racer has endured a brutal ordeal.
It resembles a miracle: Cyprien Sarrazin continues on the path to recovery. The French ski star is getting better and better – many months after a horrific fall that put his life in danger.
“I’m here. I’m making progress,” Sarrazin said in an interview with Welt . Currently, only knee pains are causing him problems, “which are driving me crazy. But that’s nothing compared to what happened to me nine months ago.”
Sarrazin suffered a serious fall last December on the famous Stelvio slope in Bormio, Italy. Among other injuries, he sustained severe head trauma. The memories and descriptions of the 31-year-old are not for the faint of heart.
“The hole was as big as three credit cards”
His helmet exploded during the fall, his airbag “burst into a thousand pieces” – followed by speech problems, and the athlete’s vision was significantly impaired.
He was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma, “because the brain was bleeding. To remove the bleeding in the brain, the doctors cut open my skull with a laser. The hole was as big as three credit cards.”
Sarrazin was under the knife, or rather the laser, for six hours at that time. Apart from a long scar from his forehead to his ear, nothing remains from the operation, but he still has a “small calcified hematoma on his back because I lost two, three liters of blood from the impact of my fall.”
Further consequences of the brutal crash: Sarrazin suffered from diplopia, “meaning I saw double. After three months, everything was back to normal, although I had been told that this could remain for the rest of my life.” However, he lost sensation in his left nostril.
At least an immediate comeback as a ski racer is not yet planned. The ski racer wants to “get back on skis under good conditions, make turns and have fun.” It would be the next chapter of a miracle.