A LIFE IN THE BALANCE
An emergency trackside tracheotomy saves the life of rising star Mika Hakkinen following a terrifying crash in Adelaide, 1995
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Mika Hakkinen crashes at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix but the quick thinking of trackside medical staff saves his life.
During the practice session in Adelaide, debris punctures a tire and throws Hakkinen’s McLaren into a wall with sickening force.
Rescue crews rush to his aid and find him critically injured, bleeding profusely from the mouth and turning blue from lack of oxygen.
Doctors, led by FIA medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins, perform an emergency tracheotomy, making an incision in his throat and inserting a tube so he can breathe.
Hakkinen is then rushed to hospital where his life hangs in the balance. As he regains consciousness Hakkinen begins to recognise friends and family, who help nurse him through an extremely difficult recovery period.
When he is allowed back to his Monaco residence, Hakkinen jokes that he sleeps more than his pet tortoise Caroline.
Thankfully, he recovers his faculties, except for a hearing impediment that contributes to a slightly slower way of speaking.
Even so, he is unsure about ever being able to resume his racing career. “You can only get over your fears if you attack them head on,” he says. “So I have to go driving again flat out.”
Early in 1996, in a private test arranged by McLaren, he is immediately as quick as ever. The rest is history.
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