Polak out of hospital: Richmond Press Release (July 30):
Graham Polak was discharged from hospital this morning. Graham’s doctors have indicated that he is not ready to front the media.
Richmond doctor Greg Hickey said: "Graham still has a very long way to go with his recovery and will be undergoing extensive rehabilitation in the coming weeks."
Richmond coach Terry Wallace said: "We are thrilled that Graham has been able to show doctors at the Epworth Rehab Centre enough positive signs that he can return home."
"Graham still has a long way to go in his recovery, but this is considered another positive step."
June 30: Ben Wise for 3AW.com.au
Listen to Professor Mark Fitzgerald on 3AW
Richmond's media conference on Monday: Uncut
Cleve Hughes and Jordan McMahon severely traumatised
Richmond defender Graham Polak is out of his induced coma and has been ‘obeying commands’, according to Alfred Hospital Trauma Centre Director Professor Mark Fitzgerald.
Polak was crossing the road at the Orrong and Dandenong roads intersection in Armadale around 11.30pm on Saturday night when he was hit by a tram. Tiger team-mates Cleve Hughes and Jordan McMahon were with Polak at the time.
Professor Fitzgerald told 3AW on Monday morning that it was lucky that people were on hand to call emergency services after the accident.
“I looked after him when he cam in early Sunday morning and he is doing a lot better (now) than I expected,” Professor Fitzgerald told Neil Mitchell.
“He had quite a severe head injury and was lucky that it was witnessed - people were quickly on the scene and ambulance officers were able to put him on a ventilator quickly.”
Professor Fitzgerald said that Polak was taken off the ventilator on Sunday afternoon, and his condition has continued to improve since that time.
“He was put on a ventilator at the scene and we kept him in the trauma centre to do some serial CT scans to make sure he didn’t have any brain swelling,” he said.
“He’s had quite a severe blow to the head and was deeply unconscious at the scene. He has areas of brain injury on his scan, but he’s a young person and very fit and we expect him to recover over the next few weeks.”
“It will take some time … but he is doing very well.”
When asked whether Polak’s injuries were life-threatening at the scene, Professor Fitzgerald replied bluntly: “Yep.”
Meanwhile, Professor Fitzgerald dismissed as false claims that Polak was in the emergency ward for over a day before being moved to intensive care.
“No, he came to the trauma centre and the initial scan was done shortly after he arrived but because he was scanned within an hour of the accident you can get some brain swelling in the hours after that and I didn’t want to shift him out of the trauma centre,” he said.
“I wanted to follow his progress with serial brain scans. The alternative is we would have had to put a catheter in his brain to measures his pressures and we didn’t want to do that. He was in the trauma centre for 18 or 19 hours.”
Professor Fitzgerald made it clear that it will be days before a clear estimate on when Polak may be let out of hospital is released.