Kai Sakakibara moved to rehab unit in Liverpool

After nearly eight weeks at the Canberra Hospital, Kai Sakakibara has been moved to the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (BIRU) at Liverpool Hospital to begin his next phase of recovery.

Source: Australian Cycling Team

Sakakibara was involved in a serious accident at February's UCI BMX World Cup in Bathurst, later cancelled due to torrential conditions, and was put into an induced coma at Canberra Hospital's ICU.

For several weeks he has remained in a critical but stable condition, and his family have provided regular details about his condition.

The latest update released today contains the good news Kai was able to be moved to the BIRU at Liverpool. 

"The move is good for a number of reasons," Martin, Yuki, and Saya said in their statement. "From a medical perspective he is well enough to leave the hospital. He can start on the rehabilitation process.

"He is closer to home and BIRU is probably one of the safest places he can be during the Covid-19 virus pandemic."

But they were also realistic and honest about the long road ahead. 

"Kai continues to ‘emerge’ from the state of unconsciousness, and we are super excited to start communicating with him.

"However, as time progresses it becomes more and more evident that this has been a truly serious injury. The doctors tell us Kai has a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) on the left side of his brain which is severely impacting his ability to move the right side of his body and also his ability to speak amongst other things. We have been told that Kai will have some permanent disability.

"(But) he is making solid improvements. It is all extremely tiring; one hour of physiotherapy in the morning will make him tired for the rest of the day.

"As you can imagine he always puts in 100% so this is to be expected."

The Sakakibara family asked people to continue to follow his progress and keep him in their thoughts and ended the statement once again with Kai's motto "One day at a time, one moment at a time. Let's go."

For the full details of Kai's fight and the latest update from the family, visit the Australian Cycling Team website.