Juan Matute Guimon Continuing to Improve, Decision by Weeks End on Leaving Intensive Care
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June 3, 2020
Juan Matute Guimon continues to improve, his father reported Wednesday, and doctors in the Madrid hospital will likely decide in the next two days whether he can leave intensive care.
The 22-year-old Spanish team rider has been hospitalized since collapsing May 5 with what was discovered to be a genetic brain disorder.
Neurosurgeons at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation hospital successfully operated on Juan four weeks ago this coming Saturday.
“Juan still improving, but we must wait for doctors to confirm,” reported Juan’s father and three-time Olympian for Spain, Juan Matute Azpitarte.
“They will decide on Friday if he can leave the Intensive Care Room.”
Juan has both United States and Spanish citizenships and after growing up with his family in Wellington, Florida returned to Madrid two years ago to develop his dressage and go to university.
After success in youth divisions, he moved up to the senior ranks and was selected for Spain’s team for the 2018 World Equestrian Games that qualified the nation for a start at the Olympics in Tokyo.
This year, his competition results made it virtually certain he would have been invited to the World Cup Final in Las Vegas and with his top two horses second and third ranked among Spanish combinations on the world standings could have made the Spanish team for the Tokyo Olympics. However, the World Cup was canceled and the Olympics put off for a year to the summer of 2021, both because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
