Johan Friso, the second of Dutch Queen Beatrix's three sons, was buried for 25 minutes before rescuers found him. It then took nearly 50 precious minutes to reanimate the prince after he was pulled from the snow, time that may have cause permanent damage, said Dr. Wolfgang Koller, head of trauma at the Innsbruck hospital where he is being treated.
"It is clear that the oxygen starvation has caused massive brain damage to the patient," Koller said. "At the moment, it cannot be predicted if he will ever regain consciousness."
The 41-yaer-old Friso, who is married and has two young daughters, will be moved later to a rehabilitation clinic for further treatment. But Koller cautioned that it may take years before he awakens from his coma -- if he ever does -- and any recovery from such significant brain damage is a process of "months or even years."
Friso was skiing off-trail in Lech, Austria, despite avalanche warnings, with a childhood friend from the alpine village the Dutch royal family has been visiting each winter for years.
The friend was carrying an avalanche "air bag" and escaped without serious injury. Friso was found with the help of a signaling device he was carrying and flown by helicopter to the Innsbruck Clinic.
But "50 minutes of reanimation is extremely long. You could say too long," Koller said.
The doctor said that due to protocols for minimizing brain damage after such an accident, it had only been possible to conduct an MRI scan of Friso's brain on Thursday.
"We had hoped that the slight cooling of the patient would protect his brain from too serious damage. Unfortunately this hope was not fulfilled," he said.
Friso is in a coma, a state of unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened with external physical or auditory stimulation. There are different levels of unconsciousness and unresponsiveness depending on how much brain function there is. Doctors did not give further details of Friso's diagnosis. » | Associated Press | Friday, February 24, 2012
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