Newsletter, D. Aegerter

Frédéric Corminboeuf: “Dominique is going to start his rehabilitation”

01.10.2015

The victim of an accident on the first lap of the Aragon Moto2 Grand Prix in Alcañiz, Dominique Aegerter (Technomag Racing Interwetten) was seriously injured. The official press release of the Grand Prix medical centre confirmed on Sunday evening a fracture of four vertebras (L2, L3, L4 and L5) without displacement, a broken right wrist, four broken bones in his right hand, broken ribs and bruised lungs.

To discuss the situation officially, Frédéric Corminboeuf, the owner of CGBM Evolution, the company that lines up the two teams (Technomag Racing Interwetten & Derendinger Racing Interwetten) and three Swiss rides on the Moto2 World Championship grid, answers our questions:

Frédéric, what was the situation immediately after the accident?

When the medical staff was treating Dominique, our technical team was immediately fixing the bike, just in case. Because Dominique was ready to take part in the restart? Not exactly. It was a member of the medical team who said that Domi wanted to go out again, it spread quickly and we believed it. In reality he was in too much pain.

The first assessment talked about backache and a problem with a right hand, right?

Yes, he effectively received first aid at the circuit and they decided to transport Dominique to a hospital in Alcañiz for further examinations.

Where the diagnosis was clarified. At that moment, how did you organise everything?

Gilles Bigot, Domi’s chief technician went to the hospital with him. The whole team visited him that night and his teammate Robin Mulhauser stayed with him. At the same time we were organising his return home.

Which was on Monday?

Yes. An ambulance picked Dominique up in Alcañiz at 10 o’clock and took him to Zaragoza, where a medical airplane REGA was waiting for him to take him back to Nottwil, where he arrived in the afternoon.

One can imagine that when we heard the word Norrwil, the city of Swiss paraplegic centre, fans were worried?

I understand but Nottwil does not necessarily mean a wheelchair. This is where the best specialist for back injuries are and we wanted the best care for Dominique.

And are the news any good?

I was with Dominique on Tuesday morning, he is walking and he is keeping his head up. No operation is necessary; a Swedish hand specialist was there, the wrist fracture is clean, there are no concerns on this side either.

And what happens next?

As soon as Dominique can get by without painkillers, he will be transferred to a rehabilitation centre in Grisons, Bad Ragaz. The doctors speak of a period of four to fix weeks for a full recovery.

As a team boss you also had to think about the final part of the championship. Or, we know that injured riders have to be replaced.

Have you made a decision already? Many riders offered their services to us. We are negotiating with one of them and I hope to be able to formalize this information this weekend. Our objective was to find a rider who can participate in the three overseas races and who knows the three circuits. As the last round of the superbike and supersport championship takes place in Qatar when we are in Australia, we had to reject a few interesting names. But I think that we have found a good replacement.