/ 16 June 2014

Michael Schumacher out of coma

Michael Schumacher will undergo further treatment at a hospital in Switzerland.
Michael Schumacher will undergo further treatment at a hospital in Switzerland.

Formula One champion Michael Schumacher was transferred from a French hospital to a facility in Switzerland on Monday after emerging from a coma following a skiing accident in December.

In a surprise announcement, the retired racing star’s spokesperson, Sabine Kehm, said he had left the hospital in the French Alpine city of Grenoble where he had been treated since December, after slamming his head on a rock while skiing with his son and friends.

The 45-year-old was transferred to a hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne, according to hospital spokesperson Darcy Christen, where he will undergo further treatment.

“His family would like to explicitly thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months,” Kehm said.

“For the future, we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye,” she added.

Kehm gave no further details about Schumacher’s condition, which has been kept under a tight lid since his accident in the French Alpine resort of Meribel on December 29.

The seven-time world champion underwent two operations to remove life-threatening blood clots after a freak accident that shocked the world, before being plunged into a medically induced coma.

His family announced at the end of January that drugs used to keep him in deep sleep were being reduced with a view to bringing him back to consciousness, but few other details had filtered out since then.

Schumacher is well known for his love of adrenaline sports. He continued to pursue extreme sports after retiring from the high-risk world of racing: he has a pilot’s licence and is an accomplished motorbike rider, parachutist, skier and mountain climber.

He sustained head and neck injuries in a motorbike accident in Spain in 2009 but was released from hospital after just five hours.

The accident on December 29 proved near fatal, but in several statements released to the media, his wife Corinna and two children said they remained confident that the man who defied death more than once on the track would pull through.

Kehm said on Monday that Schumacher’s family wanted “to thank all the people who have sent Michael all the many good wishes”. “We are sure it helped him,” she added. – Sapa-AFP