Macartney Recuperates at Home
PARK CITY, Utah (Feb. 2) - Two-time Olympian Scott Macartney (Crystal Mountain, WA) is recuperating at home following a series of tests to determine the extent of a severe concussion he suffered in a racing crash nearly two weeks ago. Macartney is anxious to return to racing, but paying close attention to the advice of U.S. Ski Team doctors.
Macartney crashed Jan. 19 - his 30th birthday - as he was coming off the last jump of the famed Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria. "It's a bummer. I was having a great season, and I had a great race going and just needed to stand up across the finish line. It would have been a great downhill result. Now, it's tough dealing with this and the uncertainty of how long I'll have to wait," he said.
The U.S. Ski Team veteran was fortunate to have outstanding care from the race medical team that evacuated him by helicopter from the finish to the hospital in Kitzbuehel, and then on to Innsbruck's noted University Klinik Hospital. The U.S. Ski Team also had two of its top volunteer physicians, including Dr. Vern Cooley and neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Rich, at the Hahnenkamm. He underwent observation in Austrian hospitals for several days before returning to Utah for more medical evaluation and consultation, the U.S. Ski Team said. His mother was with Macartney and they flew home this week to Washington state.
He met with Dr. Rich and U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Medical Director Richard Quincy. "We're working on getting a plan as to when I can start skiing again," Macartney said. "It won't be as soon as I had hoped, but I want to get back racing as soon as the doctors say it's all right.
"I'm disappointed not being in Europe doing what I love doing [racing] but I'm not 100 percent, so I have to wait until I get back [to that level]," he said.
"Scott is progressing at a very rapid rate and is recovering quite well," said Quincy. "I'm professionally pleased to see that everything has gone according to script in the management of this medical case from the selection of safety equipment, to the emergency management of the injury, to the outstanding care and treatment by all of the medical professionals involved.
"Now we must allow appropriate time and healing to occur so that Scott is returned back to the sport safely."
Macartney underwent an ImPACT ™ test, which measures various brain functions in an individual against previously-collected baseline data, to determine the extent of a concussion injury. "We had a discussion about what the results mean and what I was feeling. We talked about differences in my own behavior that I've noticed, loss of memory, that kind of stuff. We put that information in with the results of the test and we'll make a plan on the smartest way to progress from here," Macartney said.
"I know there's something not quite right. I can tell that myself and I'm waiting for that feeling to go away in my general, every-day approach to life. My memory isn't as crisp as I thought it might be. Could I ski race? I don't know."
He has seen video of his crash and he recalls most of his run but recalls nothing of the crash after he got out of balance in the air.
Macartney, a Dartmouth College graduate in his 10th season on the U.S. Ski Team, added, "You always think a couple of weeks from now will be a whole lot different from tomorrow, but it's still tough to say a month from now that I would - or wouldn't - be able to go.
"Listening to these doctors, that's a definite possibility," he said. "A lot has to do with how things come into play. I need rapid improvement to be back very soon."
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Macartney Recuperates at Home
