Racing Legend Recovering After Having Emergency Lung Transplant
Formula 1 racing legend Niki Lauda is recovering after having an emergency lung transplant on Thursday.
Lauda, 69, is a three-time F1 world drivers champion, an honor bestowed upon the best racer of the year based on points accumulated. He won the honor in 1975, in 1977 and again in 1984.
Lauda was on vacation in Ibiza, Spain, when he fell ill with the flu. The infection grew into a violent fever, coughing and pneumonia, reported the Osterreich, an Austrian news outlet.
He was flown back home to Vienna, where he was treated at the Vienna General Hospital.
The Osterreich reported that Lauda’s lungs were severely affected by an accident he suffered on Aug. 1, 1976, at the German Grand Prix. His Ferrari burst into flames and he suffered severe burns and inhaled hot toxic fumes that affected his lungs.
Lauda was racing six weeks later, but he has had severely corroded lungs that work at limited functionality ever since, the Osterreich reported.
Doctors recently determined that the lung was severely damaged and beyond repair, and a transplant was necessary. They found a donor and flew the lung into Vienna, where doctors successfully performed the extremely complicated procedure.
Lung transplants are one of the most complicated and risky procedures in medicine, according to the Osterreich. The procedure was done by physicians Walter Klepetko and Konrad Hötzenecker.
Klepetko, the hospital’s head of thoracic surgery, said, “Everything is currently going very well and we are very satisfied,” according to Autosport.
The typical recovery period is two to three weeks, but Klepetko said it may be longer in the case of Lauda due to his age.
Lauda currently works as a part-time broadcaster for grand prix races on German TV and is non-executive chairman and part-owner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 racing team.
Toto Wolff, also owner of the team, wished his partner a speedy recovery.
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“Our thoughts are rather with Niki, Birgit and the Lauda family. The world knows Niki as an F1 legend with incredible power and resilience. For all of us at Mercedes he is our chairman, our mentor and our friend. We have missed him by our side in Hockenheim and Hungary, and can’t wait to have him back with us on the Grand Prix tracks of this world. The recovery he now faces is not a race,” Wolff wrote on Instagram.
“But knowing Niki, I’m sure he will soon be telling every nurse and doctor that he has had enough of the hospital. We wish him a safe and speedy recovery – in that order – and send all our positive energy to him and his family. I miss you my friend,” Wolff added.
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