YOUTUBE

Top international Base jumper Jeb Corliss (in black suit) badly injured his leg in a crash-landing after jumping off Table Mountain. Cameraman flyer Jeff Nebelkopf is next to him.

Jeb Corliss, the Base jumper who crashed into Table Mountain during a jump on Monday, is still in intensive care in hospital and preparing for a long road to recovery after surgery.

Corliss, 35, suffered multiple breakages and fractures in both legs after he clipped a rock during his free fall and tumbled into a heap near the mountain’s base.

“He may need to have re-constructive surgery on his right knee when he returns to the United States,” Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital marketing officer Michelle Norris said on Tuesday.

“The laceration on his right leg is quite deep.”

Corliss was on painkillers on Tuesday and unable to speak. “He needs his rest,” Norris said. “We do believe he will make a full recovery.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Norris thought Corliss may be ready to talk by the afternoon, but even extreme sports athletes are not immune to the effects of surgery.

Corliss will remain in the intensive care unit for two or three more days, then he will be transferred to a general ward for up to three weeks before returning to the US. He will be wheelchair-bound for an undetermined period.

The team that operated on him included plastic surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons. In addition to surgery on his bones, Corliss had skin grafts to ensure tissue recovery.

Norris said Corliss was still smiling despite his sedated state. “He has a great sense of humour. He keeps on saying how much he loves Table Mountain,” she said.

Corliss is one of the world’s most daring Base jumpers, having completed over 1 000 jumps. Base jumping involves free falling from elevated surfaces and deploying a parachute just before landing.

Corliss has Base jumped at locations all over the world, soaring out of the bounds of the law. Base jumping is illegal in many government- owned locations.

Table Mountain National Park still plans on pressing charges against Corliss for Base jumping without a permit.

“We may also press charges against the company that was filming him,” Merle Collins, spokeswoman for Table Mountain National Park said.

Corliss was being filmed for American network HBO, but Collins said she believed a local company had been commissioned to film.

However, he is not likely to stop.

Said Norris: “He has not said he won’t do it again.” - Cape Times

avery.carpenter@inl.co.za