Sports: Zanardi emerges from coma, learns about loss

Zanardi emerges from coma, learns about loss

''It's encouraging the way he's getting better,'' a doctor says.

Compiled from Times wires

"It's encouraging the way he's getting better," a doctor says. "It's encouraging the way he's getting better," a doctor says.

BERLIN -- Alex Zanardi emerged from a coma Thursday to learn he had lost both his legs in a racing accident Saturday.

The two-time CART champion's wife, Daniella, told Zanardi his legs were amputated halfway up his thighs after a crash in the American Memorial 500 in Klettwitz, Germany.

"He didn't care because he still had her and (3-year-old son) Niccolo," Zanardi's teammate Tony Kanaan told CART.com. "That's the kind of spirit I expected from him."

Doctors at Klinikum Berlin-Marzahn had induced the coma with drugs to reduce the risk of Zanardi's organs failing. Wednesday they began to gradually reduce the sedatives and Zanardi emerged from the coma Thursday morning.

"It's encouraging the way he's getting better," Dr. Walter Schaffartzik told the Associated Press. "He was pulled out of the induced coma in phases."

The 34-year-old Italian, one of CART's most popular drivers, faces another routine exploratory operation today to check his progress.

"We still don't know when he can leave the intensive-care ward," Schaffartzik said.

Zanardi lost control of his Honda Reynard when he emerged from a pit stop, spun backward and was hit by Alex Tagliani at 200 mph in a crash that stunned even CART veterans.

Tagliani's Ford ripped through Zanardi's nearly stationary car and sheared it in half, with the explosion hurling the red nosecone into the air.

Within moments of the accident, CART's traveling medical team was in action.

Dr. Terry Trammell, an orthopedic surgeon who has worked the CART circuit for 20 years, immediately knew Zanardi's legs couldn't be saved and that the massive blood loss endangered his life.

"It was the equivalent to a military evacuation because it was just like he'd stepped on a land mine," Trammell told CART.com. "But both femoral arteries were ruptured and Alex was bleeding profusely. He was in big trouble."

Trammell worked to stop the bleeding, using a co-worker's belt to make a tourniquet for one leg.

"Alex had lost 70 percent of the blood in his body and was still bleeding internally," CART's medical director, Steve Olvey, told ESPN.com. "He had four or five pelvic fractures, which causes bleeding, and a blood buildup around his liver.

"When you have massive hemorrhaging it affects the ability of your blood to clot and you don't know what's going on inside. We didn't know if he had a ruptured spleen or what else could be damaged with an impact like that.

"You can bleed to death internally, especially in Alex's situation."

Doctors decided to bypass the infield medical center and the closest hospital in Dresden in favor of an elite trauma center in Berlin, which they could reach in 25 to 30 minutes by helicopter.

"The ICU doctors told us that in another 10-15 minutes, they wouldn't have had a chance to save him," Olvey told ESPN.com.

The prognosis is much better.

Schaffartzik said Zanardi might walk again, and doctors have begun to think about fitting him with artificial legs, although there is no timeline.

MBNA CAL RIPKEN JR. 400: America comes first this weekend with NASCAR as sponsorship logos are gone from the hoods of virtually every race car -- replaced by the red, white and blue.

Everybody will be driving for some cause Sunday at Dover, Del.

Jeff Gordon will donate heavily to children affected by last week's terrorist attacks. Tony Stewart will auction his American flag helmet for the Red Cross. Elliott Sadler will race for the fallen firefighters.

WINSTON CUP: The owner of New Hampshire International Speedway rejected an offer from Texas Motor Speedway to move the rescheduled New Hampshire 300 on Nov. 23 to Texas.

Bob Bahre, whose family owns the New Hampshire track, declined the offer from TMS owner Bruton Smith to buy the date.

The race was scheduled for last Sunday at the track in Loudon, N.H., but was postponed because of the attacks.

IRL: Kentucky Speedway extended its partnership with Belterra Casino Resort through 2004.