The details of how Egan Bernal's health evolves 1:53
(CNN Spanish) --
Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal is hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit after a series of surgeries to which he was subjected after a traffic accident he suffered on Monday on the roads of Cundinamarca.
"Egan Bernal Gómez is in the Intensive Care Unit. The patient has been given ventilatory, hemodynamic and inotropic management, to give him the best support," says the most recent statement from the Clínica Universidad de La Sabana, where he is hospitalized.
"It is hoped that the patient can be awakened little by little to give him the possibility that with all the volumes of liquid that he has needed, he can gradually recover," the statement added.
Egan Bernal says his next dream is to win the Tour of Spain to complete the triple crown
Egan Bernal undergoes surgery after suffering an accident 1:44
Egan Bernal's injuries
Egan Bernal -current champion of the Giro d'Italia and champion of the 2019 Tour de France- suffered an accident on Monday while training with his bicycle on the Bogotá-Tunja road, according to the Ineos team, to which the cyclist belongs.
In a statement, the University Clinic of La Sabana reported that Bernal suffered a fractured femur and patella.
He also suffers from "cervical and thoracic trauma".
He also has a "risk of infection and pulmonary contusion" from the accident.
advertising
"The femur stabilization procedure, a large bone fracture that can end in fat embolism, stabilized the spine from the point of view," said the director of the Clinic, Dr. Juan Guillermo Ortiz.
This "dislocated" thoracic fracture "could generate a neurological alteration in the patient's life. And on the patella, Bernal suffered an intra-articular fracture, Ortíz added.
"At the moment the patient is in the intensive care unit (ICU), managing him from the ventilatory point of view, from the hemodynamic and notropic point of view to give him the best support and that little by little he can wake up. And that , little by little, with all the volume of liquid that he has needed, the patient can gradually recover," said the specialist.
The Colombian cyclist underwent a thoracotomy with drainage due to chest trauma, according to the medical report.
This procedure involves inserting a tube through the chest to remove air and blood.
This Monday, Bernal underwent "successful" surgery, according to the clinic, and after the procedure that was performed on the T3 to T8 vertebrae, "neurological integrity" was maintained and "the functionality of the involved segments" was preserved.
"We expect the best of the evolutions in this case. Once this is finished and we have the opinion of the surgeon, we will be giving a new report," said Dr. Juan Guillermo Ortiz, general director of the Clínica Universidad de La Sabana, in a previous statement.
PHOTOS |
Egan Bernal and other Latin American cyclists who have made history
This is how the Colombian Egan Bernal, champion of the Giro d'Italia, extended his legacy 3:05
A "high-energy trauma"
The Colombian cyclist was training with the INEOS team on the road that leads from Bogotá to Tunja, a two-lane highway, training for a time trial, according to what Colonel Juan Carlos Castro Amórtegui, deputy director of Traffic and Transportation of the Police, told CNN. National of Colombia.
"There is a bus that stops on the shoulder to drop off a passenger and Egan comes in the back and collides with it," said the colonel.
The director of the University Clinic of La Sabana, Dr. Ortíz, said that what Egan suffered was "high-energy trauma" that "is the result without kinetics in such important traffic accidents."
According to the Traffic Police, it is estimated that Bernal was traveling at 50 or 60 km/h at the time of the accident.
Who is Egan Bernal, winner of the Tour de France?
2:10
Egan Bernal's accident
Egan's accident occurred when he was training for a time trial and a passenger vehicle stopped to drop off a person.
At that moment, Bernal crashes into that vehicle from the rear, according to what Colonel Castro Amórtegui, of Police Traffic and Transportation, told CNN.
"It was an accident," said Colonel Castro Amórtegui emphatically, pointing out the causes of the accident.
"We cannot say that the driver closed it" or that it was intentional.
According to him, the driver of the intermunicipal bus stopped at the berm, a strip authorized by the traffic code in which drivers can stop for any reason, including to drop off passengers, in the case of public service vehicles.
He was not committing any infraction, according to Colonel Castro.
"The intermunicipal transport cars use it because this is an industrial zone with many companies and many families live there, so they stop to pick up and drop off passengers in the sector," said the policeman.
The bicycle on which Bernal was riding was important in this accident, because due to its specifications, the cyclist's body is (in an aerodynamic position) "and the view is towards the ground, so you have to be doing the exercise of looking straight ahead and look down," the deputy director of Police Transit and Transportation told CNN.
"In the first jump he makes, he may have his eyes straight ahead and see that the road is clear, he lowers his head. In that, a vehicle can pass on the left side, overtake it, park and he has in his head that it is not But when he looks up again, the car is already on top of him and that's when he collides with it.
"That can happen, because you don't always have 100% sight on the road, but because of the conditions of the bicycle, that's what can happen," Colonel Castro told CNN.
CNN tried to communicate with the Ineos team, but has not received a response so far.
Investigations are currently being carried out by the Traffic Police to clarify the details of the accident.
The vehicles involved were immobilized.
A new part of Bernal's health is expected in the next few hours.
Egan Bernal