Apprentice jockey Bailey Rogerson’s condition is improving in Waikato Hospital, with the 24-year-old no longer in an induced coma.
Rogerson was injured in a race fall at Arawa Park in Rotorua on Sunday and was placed in an induced coma and on life support in the intensive care unit afterfracturing her skull and a bone at the top of her neck, with concerns over intracranial bleeding.
But the jockey has now been taken off the assisted breathing machine and brought out of the coma and is reported to be responding well.
“We are still very cautious and realise there is a long way to go, but she is a lot better,” says father Gary Rogerson.
“She is breathing on her own now and is responsive when spoken to, and she has even said a few words, even though her throat is sore from the tube she had down there.
“She has movement in all her limbs and has had an MRI on her head and will have another one on her back and spine, but things are looking okay there too.
“So the last 24 hours have been really positive and we have been overwhelmed with the support we have had from people all over the world.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s racing editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
