Thread: Michael Schumacher in critical condition after skiing accident

Formula One champion Michael Schumacher in critical condition after skiing accident, French hospital says
Updated 3 minutes ago


Michael Schumacher on the ski slopes in Italy.
(AFP: Vincenzo Pinto, file photo)

Former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is in a critical condition in a coma after hitting his head while skiing, the French hospital treating him says.

The 44-year-old German "was suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival, which required an immediate neurosurgical operation," the hospital in the southeast French city of Grenoble said in a statement.

He had been skiing off-piste in the French Alps resort of Meribel, where he reportedly owns a property.

Resort director Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte earlier said Schumacher was wearing a helmet and was conscious "but very agitated" during the transport to the University Hospital of Grenoble.

"He has been taken to a hospital in Moutiers," Mr Gernigon-Lecomte said.

"He fell around 11:00am and hit a rock with his head."

Mr Gernigon-Lecomte said Schumacher was "conscious but very agitated while being taken to hospital."

Schumacher's spokeswoman Sabine Kahn confirmed the accident in initial comments before the gravity of the situation became apparent.

Michael Schumacher: a need for speed

• Born January 3 1969 in Germany
• Won the F1 world championship seven times between 1994 and 2004
• Regarded by most as the best F1 driver ever
• Raced for Benetton and Ferrari before retiring in 2006
• In 2002 he finished in the top three in every F1 race
• Signed a three-year comeback deal for Mercedes in 2010 but failed to recapture glory years
• Announced final retirement from racing in late 2012

"He was taken to hospital and is receiving professional medical attention. We ask for understanding that we cannot give out continuous information about his health," she said.

"No one else was involved in the fall."

Daring F1 ace who left rivals trailing in his wake

After years of racing in the high risk world of Formula One and winning a record seven world titles, Schumacher's accident suggests that perhaps retirement has not dulled his relish of dangerous pursuits.

As an F1 racer, Schumacher was known for his daring overtaking manoeuvres, his at-times almost reckless abandon in the pursuit of victory, and his mastery of the tricky conditions presented by rain.

When he won his first world title in 1994 with Benetton, he did so in controversial fashion, crashing into his title rival Damon Hill at the final race after he had already scuppered his own hopes by going off the track when pushing hard despite leading comfortably.

It was indicative of Schumacher's win-at-all-costs attitude and his willingness to take huge risks in order to do so.

He almost provoked a similar crash in the final race of the 1997 season when battling Jacques Villeneuve for the title, an incident for which he was retrospectively disqualified from the whole season.

His career was also punctuated by accusations of dangerous driving following incidents such as a near collision with former team-mate Rubens Barrichello in 2010, which the Brazilian later described as "the most dangerous thing" he had been through.

But even such mishaps didn't slow Schumacher down or quench his thirst for success as he went on to win five successive titles with Ferrari from 2000-2004.

He retired at the end of the 2006 season before making a damp squib of a comeback in 2010 with Mercedes.

But during his retirement he survived a horror accident that knocked him out when racing a motorbike in Spain.

That time he was released from hospital after just five hours.

Even so he is the sport's most decorated champion with a record 91 GP wins, while he is one of only two men to reach 300 races.

In 2000 he also sealed Ferrari's first championship in 21 years with victory in the penultimate race of the season in Japan.

Schumacher's duels in his heyday with Hill, Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen, fired by an unquenchable competitive spirit, have gone down in Formula One folklore.

Son of a bricklayer who first raced on the go-kart track

Schumacher was born in January 1969 near Cologne, Germany, the son of a bricklayer who also ran the local go-kart track, where his mother worked in the canteen. His younger brother, Ralf also became a successful Formula One driver.

By 1987, Schumacher was the German and European go-kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice mechanic, although he was soon racing professionally.

In 1990 he won the German F3 championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sports cars. Just a year later he burst onto the Formula One scene, qualifying seventh for Jordan in his debut race at Belgium.

The young German was immediately snapped up by Benetton, where he won his first Formula One race in 1992, again at Belgium's tough Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Schumacher won 18 races over the next four seasons with Benetton, claiming back-to-back world titles in 1994 and 1995.

In 2002 Schumacher won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races.

In 2003, he broke Juan Manuel Fangio's record by claiming his sixth world title and in 2004 he won 13 races, his greatest season.

He lives in Switzerland with his wife and two children.

xxx.xxx.xx

Get well soon, Shuey.

Was always my favorite driver. I hope he will recover fully.

Amazing, isn't it? Risks his life so many time and ends up like this. Reminds of the great Rally driver Colin Mcrae.

People always looking for adrenaline shots amaze me. Wish him the best but if the worst happens next like just try to use your brain to think more.

Originally Posted by stickmansucks

People always looking for adrenaline shots amaze me. Wish him the best but if the worst happens next like just try to use your brain to think more.

He was snow skiing and hit his head which was in a helmet on a rock. Millions upon millions of people ski, what are you on about?

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

Amazing, isn't it? Risks his life so many time and ends up like this. Reminds of the great Rally driver Colin Mcrae.

Or how about Sonny Bono of Sonny & Cher fame.

Ran into a tree and it was adios.

He was doing a good job too as Mayor of Palm Springs.

"Live" update on his condition and comments from his fellow drivers here.

^ reading that, he will be in an induced coma for a few days. A shitty anxious new year for his nearest and dearest

Originally Posted by aging one

Originally Posted by stickmansucks

People always looking for adrenaline shots amaze me. Wish him the best but if the worst happens next like just try to use your brain to think more.

He was snow skiing and hit his head which was in a helmet on a rock. Millions upon millions of people ski, what are you on about?

Nothing, but it's normal that some die, just like the ones who ride motorcycles...

Schumacher's condition improves



German motor-racing champion Michael Schumacher's condition has improved slightly after an operation to relieve pressure on his brain, his doctors have said.

A new scan taken overnight showed signs that his condition was "better than yesterday", but he is still "not out of danger", doctors said.

The seven-time Formula 1 champion suffered head injuries on Sunday in a skiing accident in the French Alps.

He was put in a medically-induced coma.

Late on Monday night doctors carried out a new scan on Schumacher which showed "an improved situation" and indicated a window of opportunity for a second operation, doctors said


The family took the "difficult decision" to give consent for the operation, and doctors operated on Schumacher for about two hours.

A subsequent scan revealed a "slight improvement" in Schumacher's condition.

Doctors said they could not deem the former F1 racer "out of danger", but said that they had "gained a bit more time in the evolution" of Schumacher's condition.

"It is better than yesterday," the medical team said. "But all the family is very much aware that his state is still sensitive and anything can happen

He's lived a dangerous life and been well rewarded.
I have been nearly killed 3 times in Soi Bukhao Pattaya and i mean close clips.
Life is mapped out for all of us, Buddhist, Christian Hindu - fuck the Muslims.
Hope Michael gets through it, he has the best care money can buy.

Christophe repeated himself about Mike's agitation.

Skiiing is quite a dangerous sport, never fancied it myself. Hope he recovers. It must have been awful for the guy being agitated instead of knocked out.

Resort director Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte earlier said Schumacher was wearing a helmet and was conscious "but very agitated" during the transport to the University Hospital of Grenoble.

"He has been taken to a hospital in Moutiers," Mr Gernigon-Lecomte said.

"He fell around 11:00am and hit a rock with his head."

Mr Gernigon-Lecomte said Schumacher was "conscious but very agitated while being taken to hospital."

Had the privilege of meeting him in the pits a few years ago with my young son in tow. The bloke is an absolute gent and nice as pie.

I really hope he pulls through.

Berlin - Michael Schumacher is being woken up from an induced coma, his manager Sabine Kehm says.

Manager: Schumacher being up from coma - The Nation

Doctors to start waking up ex-Formula One champion Schumacher
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by James Regan)
Thu Jan 30, 2014


Mercedes Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany sprays champagne during the podium ceremony after the European F1 Grand Prix at the Valencia street circuit June 24, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Miguel Vidal

Doctors treating seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher will begin lowering his sedation level in order to start the process to wake him up, his agent said on Thursday.

Schumacher has been in an artificial coma in a hospital in the eastern French city of Grenoble for more than four weeks following an accident in late December when he slammed his head on a rock while skiing off-piste in the resort of Meribel.

"Michael's sedation is being reduced in order to allow the start of the waking-up process, which may take (a) long time," his agent, Sabine Kehm, said in a statement.

reuters.com

Patience required for lifting of Schumacher coma: Experts
Jan 31, 2014


Emerging from an extended, drug-induced coma, like the one Michael Schumacher was placed in after a ski accident, could take several days or not happen at all, medical experts say.
FILE PHOTO: AFP

PARIS (AFP) - Emerging from an extended, drug-induced coma, like the one Michael Schumacher was placed in after a ski accident, could take several days or not happen at all, medical experts say.

Doctors started on Thursday to try and coax the Formula One legend out of an artificial deep sleep he has placed in after a near-fatal ski fall in December.

After a progressive reduction of the sedative dose, it can take several more days for the last drug traces in a patient's system to disappear, according to Gerard Audibert, a neurosurgeon at the University Hospital in Nancy, eastern France.

"There is a grey zone (between wake and sleep) that lasts several days, but it varies from one patient to another," he told AFP.

straitstimes.com

Originally Posted by Teflon Don

He still got hurt when he was wearing a helmet.
That's why I don't wear them

Non sequitur...

Chop logic, methinks...

^ If he wasn't wearing a helmet he may have died.

Being in a coma that long cannot be good me thinks.

My point...

The cracking of an eggshell with the contents oozing out can also cause concern

Originally Posted by Teflon Don

Originally Posted by barbaro

^ If he wasn't wearing a helmet he may have died.

Being in a coma that long cannot be good me thinks.

Maybe you are right. But the shaking of the brain is what causes injury. G forces are not changed with a helmet

Yes they are (to a degree), a helmet spreads the point of impact to a larger area and the impact absorbing liner slows down the impact.

Naturally you can smack your head so hard that helmet or not you are done for. but in most cases though it makes a hell of a difference, the helmet reduces the "G forces" enough for you to survive.




"A helmet reduces the impact of a crash using two methods: distributing the force over a large area and slowing down the impact.

Using the basic equation of force, Force = mass * acceleration, we can look at how these two methods reduce impact.

Force can be measured simply as total force (e.g. 100 Newtons) or quantified by force over area (e.g. Newtons per square centimeter). As a helmet spreads the force for one point to a larger area, the force/area measure is decreased. This reduces the force applied to a single area, however, the overall force applied is still the same.

Acceleration is the other part of the equation that a helmet works to minimize. Acceleration is often measured as length over time-squared (e.g. meters/second-squared). Upon impact, the helmet is designed to crush, and this process of crushing extends the amount of time involved for the head to come to a stop (or before it bounces). This increases the time value in the measure, and since the time measure is a squared value, the effects of increasing the time involved has a big impact on reducing the overall acceleration and subsequent force."

^
First I hope MS pulls through without to much damage even if it does look grim right now. And yes he certainly was a class above the rest.

For 2014 I am going to be a bit home biased - Kevin Magnussen apart from that I support Ferrari with Raikkonen and Alonso, but Vettle really matured at the end of the 2013 season and looked unbeatable, I do see a bit future Schumacher in him, to be really sure we need to see him manage a whole season in a lesser car without loosing it, still his bad unsportsmanlike behaviour towards Webber will take a while to be forgotten, but then both Ayrton Senna and Schumacher had similar controversy in their time.

Schumacher shows conscious moments
4/04/2014

Former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher has shown signs of waking up from an artificial coma, his manager Sabine Kehm said Friday.

"Michael is making progress on his way. He shows moments of consciousness and awakening," Kehm said in a written statement.

Schumacher, 45, suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident at the French resort of Meribel on December 29.

The seven-time world champion was taken to a hospital in Grenoble for emergency surgery and was then placed in an artificial coma.

"We are on his side during his long and difficult fight, together with the team of the hospital in Grenoble, and we keep remaining confident," added Kehm.

Further details were not being made available, said Kehm, to protect the privacy of Schumacher and his family, and to allow the medical team to work in peace.

bangkokpost.com

^^^ Larvid,

Thanks for the info on helmets.

I wish the best for Schumacher (and anyone in that condition).