“He’s still in that acute phase where they might have a lot of work to do in the present, in a few moments, in the next few days,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston on CNN. . “It’s unclear to me whether he’s going back to the operating room or not.”
Woods sustained injuries to his leg that required a rod, screws, pins, and a surgical removal of the muscle covering – one that surgeons likely thought would save his leg from amputation, Faust said.
Authorities believe the incident was “purely an accident,” but will have to pull the black box event recorder from the vehicle to make that decision, Villanueva said. Seeing Woods in hospital on Tuesday, the 15-time great champion told investigators he had no memory of the crash.
Just a month after his fifth back surgery in his career, the most recent crash threatens to dull his hopes of returning to the gulf’s glory.
He’s made comebacks before
While fellow golf professionals have recognized that the health of Woods and his family are the most important things to consider right now, they don’t count him either.
He’s done it before, said Rory McIlroy.
Famous from an early age, Woods turned professional in 1996 when he was just 21 years old, and his talent and charisma made him a global icon. He won a remarkable 14 golf majors from 1997 to 2008 and looked like he was going to meander past Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18.
After a hiatus from the sport, he returned to golf, but without the stifling dominance of his earlier years. There was also a growing list of injuries, leading to four back surgeries, including spinal fusion surgeries, as well as the “dark times” when the pain was so bad he couldn’t even get out of bed or play with his children.
World No. 2 John Rahm said he hoped Woods could play golf and win more tournaments.
And that he could then have a decent retirement by standing on the iconic Swilcan Bridge at St Andrew’s Golf Course in Scotland “and just saying goodbye to the game.”
Safety features and the seat belt saved his life, authorities say
Woods was driving a Genesis SUV vehicle alone and is said to have traveled at high speed before the crash, authorities said. There were no skid marks or other evidence of braking, Villanueva added.
Villanueva said the section of the road is “downhill in a curve,” and he and Gonzalez said the area is known as a problem area for speeding and accidents. The road has seen 13 accidents since January last year.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, responding to the crash, found a lucid Woods still strapped to his seat belt, but trapped when the SUV rolled onto the driver’s door.
“I really think that the fact that he was wearing a seat belt and that the vehicle’s safety features worked as designed by the manufacturer probably resulted in his injury being reduced or his life saved,” Gonzalez told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
The car he was driving also had an all-new safety platform, a director of the automaker said in a statement to CNN.
The safety features of the Genesis GV80 include a strong focus on “passenger compartment protection / reinforcement areas,” said Dana White, Chief Communications Officer for Genesis Motor North America. “This includes the use of advanced high strength steel for rigidity and safety.”
The vehicle was equipped with 10 standard airbags, including a “central side airbag unique to Genesis that deploys between the front seats,” White said.
While the vehicle’s exterior was mutilated in the crash, the internal damage was such that Woods was able to survive.
We’ve seen accidents with much less obvious (damage) that are fatalities, ”Villanueva told CNN.
CNN’s Cheri Mossburg reported from Los Angeles, wrote Madeline Holcombe from Atlanta. CNN’s Eric Levenson, Omar Jimenez, Stella Chan, Steve Almasy, David Close, Kevin Dotson, Rob Hodgetts, Jill Martin, Dan Moriarty, Andy Rose and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.