Juan Manuel Correa “grateful to be alive” after F2 crash

Formula 2 driver Juan Manuel Correa says he is “grateful to be alive” following the crash that claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert.

Hubert was tragically killed in a horrific accident during an F2 race at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on August 31 that Correa was involved in.

The 20-year-old sustained two broken legs and spinal injuries in the Formula 1-supporting event. After initial surgery, Correa was transferred to London, where he fell into acute respiratory failure and was subsequently placed into an induced coma.

Once his lungs had recovered, Correa underwent a 17-hour operation last month to reconstruct his right leg.

Speaking from his hospital bed in London in his first public video message since the crash, Correa said it is “uncertain” if he will fully recover from his injuries and thanked the overwhelming support he has received from the motorsport community.

“It’s been a very rough five weeks since the accident,” Correa said in a series of videos posted to his Instagram account.

“Obviously I never said it publicly but I want to want to publicly give my deepest condolences to the Hubert family.

“It’s been a shock to everyone that such an accident happened. You never really think something like that can happen and especially not to you until it does.

“I’m just grateful to be here, even though I obviously still have a long road of recovery and it’s still uncertain if I will ever recover to 100 percent, but I am very grateful to be alive and very grateful for the people that have been with me in this past five weeks.

“I’m very grateful for the family that I have and the support they have gave me. Without them, I would not have made it. It’s that simple.

“This has really changed my life and the way I see things and the way I think about life and everything in general. It’s been a life-changing experience.

“Also, I want to thank all of you guys. The support and the loving messages from people I don’t even know personally, I’ve read almost all of them.

“I spent pretty much all day reading messages and trying to answer to as many people as possible, or at least like the comments.

“But I just want to tell you that I will read them eventually. There’s thousands of them so I don’t think I will get it done in one day but really thank you, so, so much because it means a lot to me.

Correa said he is now focusing on the “fastest and best recovery possible” and revealed he will have further surgery on Monday before travelling to Miami in November to continue his rehabilitation.

“It is what it is and I have accepted what happened and I can only be positive now and work as hard as possible for the fastest recovery possible and the best recovery as well,” Correa explained.

“The plan will be to have another surgery next Monday [October 14] and that should be the last surgery here in London.

“After that, at the beginning of November, I should be travelling to Miami to see my siblings and to start my full on recovery, which will last, according to the doctors here, they are expecting it to last between 10 months to a year before I can really start to tell how the right foot really is.

“At the moment I have a metal frame that doesn’t let me move the foot at all, so it’s just healing and that will be there for at least eight-to-10 months, so we will see what happens.

“But I’m positive, there’s nothing else to do other than be here and feel sorry for myself and be depressed, or I can just get on with it and be positive and do the best I can for the recovery.”

 

 

 

 

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I’m back

A post shared by Juan Manuel Correa (@juanmanuelcorrea_) on Oct 8, 2019 at 10:31am PDT