April 27, 1998 - Amstel Gold aftermath
"Scott is in hospital in Gent and had a five hour operation for a brain haemorage which began at 6.15pm and lasted until 11.15pm (European time) last (Sunday) night. Doctors say his condition is stable and he's making a fair recovery but, pretty obviously, he's still in intensive care.
The accident occured with 30ks to go in Amstel Gold when Scotty was hit by the TVM car driven by Cees Priem. The car's sidelight clipped his back wheel which caused a chain reaction with Scott falling into Peter Van Petegem (who had just taken a bidon from Priem) and then being upended and thus bouncing on his head three times during as he rolled back down the road still clipped into his bike.
All of the team cars (for the riders in this second group) were in close formation and the Palmans car was with Scott immediately. Indeed, with all of the team cars behind that group, the Palmans guys were just waiting for Van Petegem to finish consulting with Priem before, themselves, moving up to talk to Scotty.
Following the crash, Scott was airlifted to hospital in Maastricht immediately after an immediate examination which proved no bones had been broken.
In Maastricht, doctors examined him but could find nothing wrong other than severe bruising and he was kept in overnight but transferred to Ghent during the course of Sunday afternoon. However, through the course of the afternoon and on arrival in Gent, Scotty kept complaining of intense headaches which ultimately led to severe vomiting and even more severe pain and blurred vision. Within half an hour of arrival in Gent hospital he was in intensive care and, when the Gent doctors realised that no ECG tests had been made in Maastricht, quickly did these and within half an hour Scott was operated on for a haemorage at the back of his head (which was putting pressure on his brain).
He's come through the operation OK, Sabine has been with him throughout and she says that his dark sense of humour is back again (!); apparently Scott's first comment was when he woke after the operation... , "just make sure they get me another shot of that Morphine stuff. Oh... and a coke as well please!"
It appears that he's out of immediate danger but, so long as he continues to make good progress, will be in hospital for at least another week for observation. After which he'll be allowed home but not allowed to train for another month so its highly unlikely that Scott'll be back in the thick of the action much before September (the late season classics).
Sabine said early this morning, "I was in Maastricht just by the finish. It looked like he was in place for a possible top ten finish - which I was really pleased about especially after his tendonitis problems in L-B-L and then.... I saw it all - as if in slow motion - on the big screens they have there. I couldn't breathe for what felt like a minute, couldn't scream, couldn't move, couldn't anything. I got to the hospital before Scott did and we didn't think it was too bad until he started to complain about the headaches much, much later on. Then the pain for him just got worse and worse, the vomiting started and it was when we'd got to the hospital in Ghent that everything seemed to go so fast. Obviously at that point it was really serious and there was this fantastic South African doctor who was very direct and explained everything very succinctly, showed me the pictures( X-rays) and you could see where the haemorage was. As soon as his blood-type arrived, they were able to operate. And now, he's awake, pretty groggy but laughing and joking and wanting cans of coke and annoyed at the nurses who won't give him them!"
The most important thing is Scott's ok and alive (although, in truth, it was a close run thing)."
It took Sunderland over a year to recover from this crash.
Tags: Scott Sunderland Cees Priem 1998 Amstel Gold Race bike bicycle cycling world cup crash
