The French hospital treating Seven-time Formula 1 champion, Michael Schumacher, says he is in a critical condition after a skiing accident.
The 44-year-old German suffered a serious brain trauma after the accident when skiing off-piste with his son in the French Alps on Sunday morning.
He was wearing a helmet when he fell and hit his head against a rock. He was rushed to a hospital in the nearby valley town of Moutier but was in a coma on arrival and underwent immediate surgery.
From there he was moved to the bigger facility at Grenoble in south-east France.
“I’d say this accident happened in the right place because he was taken into hospital immediately and operated on as soon as he arrived, this meant his state is critical and he is still in coma and he will be kept in a coma,” chief anesthesiologist Professor Jean-Francois Payen said at a press conference Monday noon.
“We can say he is fighting for his life. We judge him to be in a very serious situation. We cannot tell what the outcome will be yet. We are working hour-by-hour but it’s too early to say what is going to happen and to have a prognosis.
“We think the helmet did help, without a helmet he wouldn’t be here now.”
Schumacher, who managed to recover and stage a comeback in F1 with Mercedes in 2010 after suffering neck and spine injuries in a motorcycling accident in Spain in 2009, is now under the care of Professor Gerard Saillant, a brain and spinal injury expert who is also president of the International Automobile federation (FIA) Institute.
Saillant, a close ally and friend of Schumacher, oversaw the German’s medical care when he broke his leg in the 1999 British Grand Prix.
Schumacher’s wife Corrinna and two children are with him.
“We are in constant contact with his family that are by his bedside. At this moment we don’t see he is going to need a second operation,” Professor Payen added.
