Guilluame Moreau returns home for first time since his June accident
OAK Racing’s FIA World Endurance Championship driver Guillaume Moreau, who suffered a severe back injury at the Le Mans test day in June, has returned home to the Limousin region of France today for the first time since the accident.
Moreau, 29, has undergone two and a half months of rehabilitation at the specialist Arche centre in Le Mans following two operations at the CHU hospital in Angers. As a result of his huge crash at Le Mans on 3rd June, Guillaume had severe trauma to his spinal cord – an injury which led to fears for the worst.
However, the talented young French driver has made such a remarkable recovery to date that his doctors have decided to cut short his stay in Le Mans so he can get back to a more ‘normal’ life at home and continue his daily rehabilitation there. Having regained mobility in the majority of his muscles, Moreau is able to walk, albeit falteringly, and he has driven a car and ridden a bicycle.
In a statement issued by OAK Racing, Guillaume Moreau said: “When I find that I am not progressing fast enough, and feel that I have reached a plateau, I remember the diagnosis upon arriving at the hospital and that a wheelchair-bound future was predicted. Two and a half months later I can walk, which is the first miracle.
“The aim of the surgeon who operated in Angers, Dr Lucas, was to give me the chance to get back into the cockpit. There will be another assessment in December and I’ll know the outcome then. I know the road is still long and uncertain but I have the same objective as the surgeon. An accident like mine leads to much thought and awareness of, in particular, the question of motorsport safety. Unfortunately it requires accidents of this nature to take place in order for further advances to be made, but the passion is still there. I have also remained in very close contact with my team OAK Racing, and we are in constant contact.”
Jacques Nicolet, Team Principal of OAK Racing: “I am delighted that the quality of care he has received and his temperament as an elite athlete allowed Guillaume to shorten his stay in Angers and Le Mans, and return home sooner to Limousin, a region that matters so much to him. There he will rediscover on a daily basis emotional and sporting surroundings that will help aid his recovery. I also have great admiration and confidence in his fighting spirit that we see in life and on-track. From the start he’s not ceased to surprise us all, including the nursing staff who have had to make a special effort to adapt to the extraordinary will of a patient who they had to force to relax! He proved that competition is not solely confined to the track and that current results suggest every outcome is still possible. For Guillaume this is the most important endurance race of his life and I know that whatever happens we will continue to have him as part of our team.”
Fiona Miller (quotes from OAK Racing team statement)
Photo: SEBRING (FLORIDA, UNITED-STATES), SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, 12 HOURS OF SEBRING, WEDNESDAY MARCH 14TH 2012.