[Healeys] Schumi in a Coma

[HealeyRick]

I know there are some F1 fans here.  This has me stunned:

Grenoble (France)
(AFP) - Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time 
Formula One champion, has
undergone brain surgery and is in a "critical"
 condition after striking his
head in a ski accident in the French Alps 
on Sunday, doctors said.

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 southeastern French city of Grenoble said in a brief
 statement.

"He
remains in a critical condition."

Schumacher had been skiing off-piste with
his 14-year-old son in the 
upmarket Meribel resort, where he reportedly has a
property, when he 
fell and hit his head on a rock.

He was airlifted to a
local hospital, then, an hour later, to the 
better-equipped Grenoble
facility. A surgeon and brain specialist from 
Paris was rushed in to oversee
his treatment.

The director of the Meribel resort, Christophe
Gernigon-Lecomte, had 
said just after the accident that Schumacher had been
wearing a helmet 
and was "conscious but a little agitated", suggesting he had
not 
received life-threatening injuries.

But when Schumacher then fell into
coma, doctors realised the damage was worse than initially feared.

Two
mountain police officers who gave first aid to Schumacher said he 
was
suffering "severe cranial trauma" when they got to him and a 
helicopter was
brought in to evacuate him within 10 minutes.

A renowned Parisian
neurologist, doctor Gerard Saillant, arrived at the 
Grenoble hospital in a
police car to help take charge of the famous 
patient.

Schumacher's wife
Corinna was at his side with his two children, the hospital said.

Police kept
guard at the hospital's entrances as journalists and fans, 
some wearing the
colours of the Formula One legend's former stable 
Ferrari, gathered outside
awaiting news of his health.

The hospital statement was signed by the
facility's neurosurgeon, the 
professor in charge of its anaesthesia/revival
unit, and the hospital's 
deputy director. It was issued jointly with the
ex-racer's press team in
 Germany.

The next update on Schumacher's condition
would be given at 1000 GMT on Monday, a hospital spokesman said.

Schumacher,
who lives with his family in Switzerland, was on a private stay in Meribel,
according to his spokeswoman.

He celebrates his 45th birthday next Friday.
Police have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident,
the ski resort said.

A towering figure in Formula One

Schumacher, who won
the last of his world titles in 2004, definitively 
retired in 2012 in the
Brazilian Grand Prix, in which he finished 
seventh, after an abandoned
attempt to quit six years earlier.

Since his debut in 1991, the German
towered over the sport, winning more
 Formula One world titles and races than
any other. He had a record 91 
wins and is one of only two men to reach 300
grands prix.

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

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.

By 1987, Schumacher was the German and
European go-kart champion and was
 soon racing professionally. In 1991 he
burst into Formula One by 
qualifying seventh in his debut race in Belgium and
a year later he was 
racing for Benetton, where he won his first Formula One
grand prix in 
1992.

After joining Ferrari in 1996, Schumacher achieved
infamy by trying to 
ram Villeneuve off the road at Jerez in the last race of
1997, and was 
disqualified from the championship as punishment.

Over the
next decade, he went from strength to strength, dominating the podium, before
trying to retire the first time aged 37.

But the father of two could not
resist the lure of the track and in 2010 he signed a three-year deal with
Mercedes.

But slower reflexes and a less competitive car meant Schumacher
could 
not reproduce his former glory and he quit for good in 2012. His helmet
had a message for fans: "Life is about passions -- Thank you for sharing
mine." 
 
Rick


"Madman in a death machine"
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