The Ocean Race, Rosalin Kuiper suffers a head injury near Cape Horn

Cape Horn – At around 0900 UTC on 26th March Rosalin Kuiper suffered a head injury after she fell from her bunk when the boat turned and slammed unexpectedly in heavy sea conditions. Rosalin was off watch and sleeping when the boat wiped out due to a large wave off the South American coast near to Cape Horn. When this happened Rosalin was thrown from her bunk and hit her head just above her right eyebrow.

Rosalin never lost consciousness in the incident and the crew were quick to come to her aid as it was clear she was bleeding badly from her eyebrow. As Nico Lunven secured the boat to make it safe, Boris Herrmann contacted the shore to tell them what happened and then contacted the race doctor Spike Briggs from MSOS to confirm the best course of treatment.

Will Harris and Antoine Auriol cleaned and bandaged the area and have then continued to monitor Rosalin for worsening concussion symptoms every hour. Rosalin has been doing her best to rest and the team has been monitoring her for the last hours. Dr. Briggs made another check in at 17:30 UTC and confirmed she has a concussion and needs to rest, the team will continue to monitor her regularly.

Rosalin Kuiper in a message to Team Director Holly Cova a few hours after the incident said “I will get over it, I look like Pirate Rosie now. The slamming (in the boat) is quite bad though and goes through my head but I think I will be OK. I am sleeping alot and the boys are looking after me really well.”

Will Harris contacted the shore through the middle of the day to say, “it is hard to stop the boat from wiping out at the moment, we are doing what we can to keep it stable but the conditions are incredibly hard. We are keeping a close eye on Rosie and will do all we can to make sure she is OK. She has been really brave and is trying to rest”

Due to the remote location of the boat and the fact Rosie is in a stable condition the best option at the moment is to continue on. 

The boat team, shore team and The Ocean Race race control will continue to monitor Rosalin and will keep taking advice from Doctor Spike Briggs in order to make sure Rosalin is given the best possible care onboard.

Conditions are forecast to moderate and the motion on the boat should get progressively better into Monday UTC.

Team Malizia and The Ocean Race will update you when we have more information.

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