Stunt man injured in Shanghai wakes from coma

A stunt man seriously injured during a performance in Shanghai's Zhabei District on Saturday has come out of his coma. Oldrich Svarousky*, 48, "can open his mouth following directions from doctors in English." He is not paralyzed, but suffered a concussion, a fractured rib, a broken nose and four broken teeth. A member of the Filmka Stunts Team, Svarousky was attempting to jump through rings of fire from atop a moving car during a Hollywood stunts show when he tripped and fell and landed head first. The bloodiest of the photos we saw can be found here. You can see a video clip of the accident here.

* We are curious to know if the spelling of the name being reported (or even the name itself) is correct. Google searches for "Oldrich Svarousky" only turn up pages related to the accident story. This is a little odd, considering it was reported he was a famous Czech gymnast before launching stunt career that includes spots in such movies as Taxi Driver, Men in Black and Speed. No one named Oldrich Svarousky is mentioned in the credits for any of those films on IMDb nor is there a bio for anyone of that name. He is also not listed in the "members" section of the Filmka site. We are not doubting the guy's credentials, we just want to make sure the published reports are getting his name right.

Photo from China Daily.