Juan Matute Guimon Shows Improvement in Madrid Hospital But to Undergo Second Brain Operation
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May 7, 2020
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
The medical condition of Juan Matute Guimon was reported Thursday to have improved but still critical while doctors were preparing for a second operation to deal with bleeding in the brain that sent him to the hospital in Madrid.
The 22-year-old Olympic team prospect for Spain underwent surgery at the Hospital Universitario la Paz in Madrid that was reported by sources to have halted the bleeding.
Juan was said to have shown some improvement over his condition when he was admitted to the hospital Tuesday, unconscious after collapsing following a riding session coached by his father, Juan Matute Aziptarte, a three-time Olympian for Spain.
However, according to the sources not authorized to speak publicly, a second surgery was planned to make more repairs in a highly sensitive and difficult to reach part of the brain.
Paula Matute Guimon, Juan’s 24-year-old sister, posted a report on Instagram saying: “To see the entire equestrian community unite for our family is a feeling bigger than we could ever express, so to the hundreds of thousands of you we want to say THANK YOU and ask you to continue your prayers as Juan still fights for his life.”
Paula, also a dressage professional, lives in Wellington, Florida as did Juan with his family until two years ago when he moved to Madrid to pursue his dressage career and go to university.
Both Juan’s parents were in Madrid at the time of the collapse.
Juan had returned to Spain after competing at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington that likely clinched him a start at what would have been his first World Cup Final, scheduled for Las Vegas in mid-April but canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He is both the second and third ranked Spanish rider on different horses on the world standings.
He rode on the Spanish team at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina in 2018 that earned the nation a start at the Olympics in Tokyo that have been delayed for a year to the summer of 2021.
