RIP Jules Bianchi

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I think the direction he was going meant he still would have hit the barriers. Would be a pretty peculiar direction of travel to get through the gap.

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Official update:

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Sadly from Wiki :(

Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is one of the most common and devastating types of traumatic brain injury,[1] meaning that damage occurs over a more widespread area than in focal brain injury. DAI, which refers to extensive lesions in white matter tracts, is one of the major causes of unconsciousness and persistent vegetative state after head trauma.[2] It occurs in about half of all cases of severe head trauma.

The outcome is frequently coma, with over 90% of patients with severe DAI never regaining consciousness.[2] Those who do wake up often remain significantly impaired.[3]


Other authors state that DAI can occur in every degree of severity from (very) mild or moderate to (very) severe.[4][5] Concussion may be a milder type of diffuse axonal injury.[6]


http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/traumatic-brain-injury-types/diffuse-axonal-injury/index.html
 
BrightLampShade:7162157 said:
I think the direction he was going meant he still would have hit the barriers. Would be a pretty peculiar direction of travel to get through the gap.

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It must just have been the camera angle.
 
I suggest we update the bit at the top of the OP to include the information about the DAI. f** me at that Wiki link though. :emoticon-0107-sweat

Can only hope that having the best possible medical attention in the quickest possible time has made a difference. Fingers crossed until we get more official news, just need to be wary of gossip about his condition.
 
Found a slightly better description of the prognosis. Must hope now that it's some sort of mild version :(

Treatment of Diffuse Axonal Injury

Immediate measures will be taken to reduce swelling inside the brain, which can cause additional damage. In most cases, a course of steroids or other medications designed to reduce inflammation and swelling will be administered, and the patient will be monitored. Surgery is not an option for those who have sustained a diffuse axonal injury. If the patient has sustained a mild or moderate diffuse axonal injury, the rehabilitation phase will follow once the patient is stabilized and awake.
During this phase of treatment, the patient and his or her family will work with a multidisciplinary staff including doctors, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and other specialists to devise an individualized program designed to return the patient to the maximum level of function. The rehabilitation phase may include:
  • Speech therapy
  • Physical therapy
  • Occupational therapy
  • Recreational therapy
  • Adaptive equipment training
  • Counseling
Prognosis of Diffuse Axonal Injury

It is thought that diffuse axonal injury can occur in just about every level of severity, with concussion thought to be one of the milder forms. In mild to moderate forms of diffuse axonal injury, recovery is possible, with the mildest forms of diffuse axonal injury often resulting in few if any long-term issues.
About 90% of survivors with severe diffuse axonal injury remain unconscious. The 10% that regain consciousness are often severely impaired.



http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/traumatic-brain-injury-types/diffuse-axonal-injury/index.html
 
Sounds awful, and if that wiki page is to be believed :(

Someone said on F1Fanatic that the Dutch version of the wiki page says it can be more minor than the UK one suggests
 
F**k, that's worrying :sad:
Although they didn't actually state how severe the DAI is. But if that kind of accident wasn't enough to make it severe I don't know what would be.
 
Shortly before the release of that information, Gary Hartstein posted this blog, which encapsulates my feelings about the "need for reform". However, it is MUCH harsher to read now that we know a fuller extent of Bianchi's injuries and it does not pull any punches (as is Hartstein's style), so read at your own risk.

http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/2271/

Let’s start by making sure drivers actually respect the SPIRIT (“be prepared to stop”) and not the LETTER (“how many tenths down do I have to be to not get a stop-go penalty?”) of the safety regulations.

Oh and one last thing: please Jules, get better fast.

Hoping that he will provide some updates on Bianchi's condition.

Tears in my eyes again, that new release has floored me.
 
A section of James Allen's take on this update.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/10/bianchi-family-issues-a-statement-on-jules-condition/


This website has spoken this afternoon to a leading London brain surgeon, who informed us that a diffuse axonal injury means that there is no specific area of sharp focus in the brain which has been damaged. In other words it’s not like an area of depression which would be caused by a blow from a hammer.

Bianchi had surgery on Sunday night and doctors will be monitoring the pressure inside his skull. If that does not escalate and when it stabilises, then within 1-5 days they will reduce the anaesthetic and see if he wakes up, then they will take it from there.

We are told that with severe head injuries, 48 hours after the accident is very early to make any predictions on the outcome; some patients go on to make a full recovery, some do not. It’s rather like dropping a computer on the floor and turning it back on, there can be a wide range of results.

Top Gear TV presenter Richard Hammond is a good example of a patient who made a recovery from a diffuse axonal injury and he woke up after around one week.

That said, the announcement that it is a diffuse axonal injury at this stage is painting “quite a bleak picture”, according to our surgeon contact and it is clearly going to be a long and difficult road to recovery for Bianchi.
 
I think the direction he was going meant he still would have hit the barriers. Would be a pretty peculiar direction of travel to get through the gap.

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It really looked like the car came to rest by the start of the barrier, as if it had spun around and then travelled in the direction of the curve going round to the right.
 
Massa sticking by his views that there was too much water on the track

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/29498131


Personally, I did not think the conditions were not dangerous. Majority of drivers were still on inters and not full wets. Most of the other drivers have said much the same, so not sure why Massa is being so critical of the race continuing as it was, okay circumstances now mean that everyone can use hindsight, but for Massa to be 'screaming' for the race to be stopped seems a bit OTT.

This is the same driver who nearly won a WDC because of a race where it started to rain heavily. He didn't complain that day.

Massa has always come across as a bit OTT to me.
 
Gary Hartstein said:
Diffuse axonal injury


When we talk about “severe” head injury, as I mentioned Sunday, we’re talking about a classification that’s done CLINICALLY. That means the Glasgow score is assigned without taking into account exactly what the injuries are. Eyes, verbal, motor. That’s it.

We’ve spoken quite a bit about hematomas – collections of blood either outside of the membranes protecting the brain (“extradural” hematoma), within those membranes (“subdural”), under them (“subarachnoid”) or in the brain substance itself (“intracerebral”). Hematomas cause damage by compressing and displacing brain tissue, but also by increasing the intracranial pressure (see earlier posts about this).

When we take a patient to the CT scanner to see what the injuries are, we’re sometimes surprised to see that our (very) comatose patient has a shockingly “normal” looking scan. When the scan shows essentially generalised swelling with no significant focal neurosurgical lesions (i.e., bruises and hematomas), we talk about diffuse axonal injury, or DAI. We HATE when this happens. We have a scan that’s remarkably . . . pristine, with a patient who is seriously comatose.

Let’s look at the terms just a bit:

DIFFUSE: unlike hematomas, which by definition occur at a given location, using conventional imaging, DAI doesn’t show any SPECIFIC location for damage. This obviously isn’t particularly good news, because it precludes systematisation of the patient’s symptoms, makes rehabbing harder, etc.

AXONAL: the axons are the cable part of the nerve cell. They’re insulated cables, to conduct nerve impulses faster, so they’re covered in a fatty membrane, making them whitish. When you group lots of axons together you get white matter. The cell bodies of the nerve cells (neurons) are greyish . . . so when you put a bunch of nerve cell bodies together, yep, there it is, grey matter.

DAI seems to damage the white matter of the brain. The cabling. Once again, this isn’t really great, as the cabling is what allows higher-level information processing by hooking up the various brain areas (e.g., visual and auditory. I SEE you talking, HEAR your words, but actually it’s associative areas of my brain that fuse the information and integrates it into my experience of YOU TALKING. That kind of processing is easily interrupted with DAI.

This will often be associated with brain swelling, at least initially.

I’m totally gutted, sickened, by having to ask you to go back to December and January’s posts for more about ICP if you’re interested. I don’t have the heart to go through this again. Not for another of our guys. Jeez.

DAI is usually associated with a somber prognosis. Jules is young, strong, and is being cared for by a superb team. C’mon Jules. Go for it.

http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/diffuse-axonal-injury/