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Bezerra Remains Critical, Shows Improvement

31 January 1998

FAIRFIELD, N.J. -- Thiago Bezerra, of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, remains in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at Orlando Regional Medial Center after his January 24 accident during the U.S. F2000 National Championship race at Walt Disney World Speedway, but doctors report improvement.

Bezerra, who suffered a diffuse axonal injury due to angular acceleration/deceleration in the accident, has begun to respond to stimuli -- translating into an improvement on the medical coma scale.

"We rate the severity of a coma on a scale of three (deep coma) to 15 (normal consciousness)," said Dr. Richard Douglas, a neurosurgeon at ORMC. "When Thiago came to us, he was a four, but in the last couple days, he has improved to a six."

The scale is based on points given to particular motor and speech skills as well as eye movements. Bezerra has begun to respond to stimuli with muscle posturing and eye movement. He has also been removed from the ventilator, and is now receiving only oxygen.

"He's still critical, but his age (20), and his physical fitness are certainly in his favor."

Douglas has begun to investigate the accident to determine the exact cause of Bezerra's injury, which he has already deduced was not caused by a blow to the head, but rather by sudden deceleration.