Kai Reus of Team Rabobank Spent 11 Days In A Coma
On July 12, 22 year-old Kai Reus of Team Rabobank left the team’s
training camp in France for a solo training ride, and forgot to put on
his helmet – a move which had nearly fatal consequences for the young
man. He crashed and then spent 11 days in an induced coma. Reus has
now spoken about his experiences for the first time, looking back to
what happened and looking optimistically to the future.
“When I woke up, it was just like I had ended up in a horror movie,”
Reuss said on the team’s website, rabobank.nl. He can still remember
many details of the day of his crash. “I forgot to put my helmet on
but I did not find that out until I was already cycling. The Iséran is
a nice climb. I enjoyed the spectators who had already lined up
alongside the road for the Tour de France. And some people were
lighting candles for their families on top of the mountain. A few
Italians recognized me so I chatted with them for a minute. Then I
started my descent. The rest is only a black image, which is a good
thing I think.”
On the descent, he tried to pass a car when his chain broke and down
he went. He suffered three broken ribs and a broken collarbone as well
as a brain haemorrhage, which was serious enough for doctors to place
him in the induced coma.
Reus also has memories from the coma. “You cannot describe it, a long
time. I had many coma dreams. My parents, girlfriend, and the team
that was supporting me were all in it. That really helped me. And I
dreamt that a team-mate aborted a morning stage in Spain only to come
to me. We were aiming for a good autumn anyway, he told me. He got me
a bike and we went for a ride together. And yet another time I was
climbing to the Iséran and fans were cheering me on.”
When he was finally slowly brought out of the coma, the medication he
was taking caused some temporary personality changes. “I was not the
Kai from before the accident. I was aggressive, a side-effect from the
medication. That is not fun, but it was obviously necessary.” That is
one of the reasons he was tied to his bed. “Naturally, I wanted to be
released. And after five days I wanted to do things one my own, like
wash myself and walk a little. But everyone kept telling me to take it
easy, that I had to realize that what I had been through was very
serious. At the time I was planning to ride in the fall, but now I
know that at that time it was already impossible.”
The young Dutchman has a long ways to go but he has one less worry, in
that he knows that he has a contract for the coming year. He said he
knew “that I am riding for a really beautiful cycling team. I do not
know if things would have went the way they did if I had been on
another team. The management explicitly said that I will get all the
time I need to recover and that I will be on the team next year, even
though my contract is expiring. That is quite a relief. I will
definitely return to the pack, and I am not worried about getting back
to my old level.”
Right now, he is mainly continuing to rest, but he has already
returned to riding. “I ride a few kilometres every other day. After
all, I have to move on.”
Reus is enjoying seeing his teammates Oscar Freire and Denis Menchov
doing so well in the Vuelta a España, but admitted that watching
racing on TV was not always so easy. “The Tour of Germany, especially
Uran’s crash, and the Eneco Tour were really hard to watch, but I am
over that now.”
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