After crashing out of Stage 2 during the 2024 Dakar Rally, Carles Falcon was rescued by the medical team. He is now in a critical condition, but the doctors say he is stable.
Falcon crashed when the stage was almost over, and he immediately received help from the medical staff that airlifted him to Al Duwadimi Hospital.
Dakar Director David Castera later revealed that when the doctors arrived, the rider did not have a pulse.
“He fell at the end of the stage,” Castera told reporters. Then, we arrived with the doctor, and he found him [in a complicated state], he didn’t have a pulse, and then he resuscitated him.”
Even though it is still unknown what his injuries are, Castera stated that he is being checked at the hospital and that his condition is stable.
“Now he’s got a pulse, his blood pressure is a bit better, he’s in hospital and we’re testing everything to see what we’re going to do, whether we can operate there or stabilize him first and then bring him to Riyadh to do the things that can be done there.
“However, what I don’t have right now is the full balance sheet to see what things we do and what needs to be done. It’s more stable, and we’ve got it back, which is the most important thing.”
Since it is still unclear how the situation will develop in the next hours, Castera wanted to be cautious to give further information regarding whether Falcon’s life is in danger.
“You have to wait a bit longer to give the latest,” he said. “We have to look at a scan to see what has happened, it seems that he has no effusion (fluid build-up in the chest), and he has compression in the lungs, but it is not serious, the important thing is to look at the level of the head, then, when we have something more, we will report it.
“He has impacted his head, so we are looking to see if he has a fracture, he has made a movement with his head, and that is what we are looking at.”
Further updates will follow.