Juan Manuel Correa, F2, 2019

Correa suffered “new complications” in recovery, says family

Formula 2

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The family of Juan Manuel Correa has revealed the driver has suffered “new complications” in his recovery since his crash last week.

The 20-year-old was seriously injured in the crash during Saturday’s Formula 2 race at Spa which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert. He was transferred from an intensive car unit at a hospital in Belgium to another in London earlier this week.

“As time has progressed, new complications have surfaced as a consequence of the massive impact he suffered Saturday in Belgium,” said his family in a statement.

“On his arrival to London, Juan Manuel was diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. This is an injury considered common in high impact accidents such as this one. Unfortunately, this injury resulted in Juan Manuel falling into Acute Respiratory Failure.

“Juan Manuel is currently in an intensive care unit that specialises in respiratory injuries. At this point of time he is an in induced state of unconsciousness and under ECMO [Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation] support. Juan Manuel is in critical but stable condition.”

Correa’s family added they are “confident that our son will surprise us like he always does with his tremendous fighting will and strength and will recover completely.”

“At this time, we kindly request that our privacy and space be respected,” they added. “As a family, we need to pull together and be 100% there for Juan Manuel.

“Maria and I wish to take this opportunity to give our condolences to the Hubert family for their loss. Our hearts are broken, and we can only imagine the pain this loss has brought them.”

The family thanked fans for the expressions of support they have received since last week’s crash.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Correa suffered “new complications” in recovery, says family”

  1. ECMO – usually not good news, and is one of the last resorts.

    Prayers and best wishes to Correa, let’s hope his fundamental fitness as a racer helps him recover. The same prayers and wishes to his family too, I’m sure this sudden downturn in his condition will have hit them doubly hard.

    1. When I read the story this AM, this felt serious. I looked up ARDS – Condition in which fluid collects in the lungs’ air sacs, depriving organs of oxygen. ARDS can occur in those who are critically ill or who have significant injuries. ARDS is often fatal, the risk increasing with age and severity of illness.

      This is very serious and my thoughts are with the family.

  2. This is horrible news. Hope he pulls through.

    I didn’t say it at the time, with the wounds very fresh, but I was more surprised and shocked at how Correa suffered than Hubert. The Hubert crash, terrible as it was, you almost expected it to be critical (side hit of a broken car at that speed?). But Correa, he hit him almost perpendicularly, which is what these cars are designed to do. Even the bouncing on afterwards was clearly bad, but not outside the realm of the worst crashes in recent years people have walked from completely unscathed.
    That’s the real worry, I think. If this crash fractures legs and causes through trauma ARDS, then you have to wonder about how well the cars are really designed.

    Stay strong, Juan Manuel.

    1. @hahostolze After the earlier news about Correa I already thought it would be a lengthy and somewhat fraught recovery, but this confirms that he’s still very much in danger; I do think you are right – the Hubert crash, taking hits from two sides and then a third hit, might be beyond what the cars are really designed for – Correa’s situation might indeed be more directly worrisome for the design/build of the cars.

    2. However well crash safety structures prevent the car being crushed, they also have another job to do, which is to slow down the deceleration of a sharp impact: even if someone is strapped into a safety cell that survives undamaged, if the g-forces are too high, their organs hit the inside of their ribcage (or even their brain hits the inside of the skull, if the head is well restrained) and serious or immediately fatal damage is unavoidable.

      Slowing cars down slower is the purpose of the crash structures that shatter (or crumple, in the case of metal cars), because they absorb energy as they’re destroyed. It’s also the job of the padding on trackside barriers. In this case it was car to car, in a very unusual way, so the padding wasn’t there to help.

      It’s possible there may be solutions to this which have been overlooked until now, but I suspect there is simply a limit to the amount and size of crumple zones that can be added to cars.have

      At the end of the day, the only positive aspect of this crash that I can see is that it is shocking because it’s rare these days. It took a concatenation of several bits of really bad luck for things to end up as they did, and unfortunately while it’s good that there’s nothing obvious we could do which was overlooked previously, logically that means anything we come up with to prevent this happening again will have to be non-obvious.

      1. Very good comment, Dave

      2. Thank you for this comment, Dave. Very enlightening and balanced.

  3. I said before that he was fighting for his life, and people even answered my posts saying it was “sensationalism”. None of the drivers remembered him last weekend, i hope some remember the driver that lives.

    1. I don’t think anyone forgot him, but it’s inevitable that everyone’s attention was on the terrible news about the rare and tragic death of a driver.

      That plus the news of his condition was downplayed to broken legs and a minor spinal injury.

      I send my very best wishes for his recovery, but this news is almost as bad as it can be for someone still alive.

      My thoughts are with his loved ones.

      1. Most reports said that Correa’s condition was “critical, but stable”, and this article clearly states that the respiratory complications are recent developments during his treatment, so I don’t think you, or most of us, were wrong in thinking that he would recover speedily.

    2. This isn’t about you, and that you are now correct, that’s what Donald Trump tries to do. We were all told from the start his condition is critical, but also told that correa was aware of all that happened, combine that with the other driver dieing 1 hour after the incident, it is natural for people to assume Correa’s condition isn’t as serious (he is alive). It’s also natural for a small percent of our human and internet population to say what you said about sensationalism and talk down your opinion. But again, it’s irrelevant if you were correct, we need to take in the news as it comes.

  4. Please come back and recover man.

  5. Oh no no no. Please. All my good wishes with him right now :(

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