CCWS News - Da Matta On Road To Recovery
05/09/2006
Cristiano da Matta continues to recover from severe head injuries after hitting a deer during testing at Elkhart Lake on August 3. The Brazilian was in an induced coma for 10 days following surgery to ease swelling of his brain.
Champ Car Medical Director Dr. Chris Pinderski regularly flies to the Wisconsin hospital to keep tabs on da Matta’s condition and to visit with the da Matta family, who have been by his side throughout.
"Cristiano has made excellent progress in the past several days,” said Pinderski. “Although he is still somewhat confused, he is now conversational in both English and Portuguese.
"He's still pretty confused but he calls his girlfriend by her name and recognizes his mother and father and brother. He's made excellent progress.
"I asked Cristiano which team he drove for and he immediately began talking about engineers and wings," said Pinderski. "So he's thinking in racing terms, even if he isn't quite sure what he's saying yet.
“Additionally, he has started to walk on his own for short periods of time with minimal assistance. We anticipate that Cristiano will be ready to make the transition to a rehabilitation setting fairly soon.
"Cristiano still has a long way to go but I think he's turned the corner."
Da Matta has had a string of driver friends visit him, including Jimmy Vasser and Max Papis, and many Champ Car drivers are running “Kiki push please” stickers, a phrase from his F1 days with Toyota.
His seat at RuSPORT in the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford remained empty, leaving championship contender Justin Wilson on his own for the Denver and Montreal races.
But, there are strong rumors that once the IRL IndyCar series concludes at Chicagolands, Dario Franchitti will fill in for the final three races of the Champ Car season at Elkhart Lake, Surfers Paradise and Mexico City, though no announcement has been made yet.