INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) — Doctors have started a procedure to wake Hans Grugger from an induced coma, five days after the Austrian skier had brain surgery following a near-fatal downhill training crash.
The University Hospital in Innsbruck says in a statement on Tuesday that “the most recent tests … have gone so well that the team of doctors has started Hans Grugger’s wake-up process.”
Doctors will slowly reduce medicines that keep Grugger in a coma to monitor the reactions of the skier’s body. The process will take several days, the hospital says.
The 29-year-old Grugger lost balance in a long jump on the demanding Streif course on Thursday. He smashed his head on the icy slope and landed motionless. He was brought to a hospital by helicopter and underwent a 5-hour emergency operation.
