M$ in a coma?

Wow.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/29/sport/motorsport/michael-schumacher-skiing-f1-motorsport/

Been following since I woke up a few hours ago.  Hope he pulls through.

From SkyF1:

"Mr Schumacher was admitted to the University Hospital of Grenoble at 12:40pm, following a skiing accident which occurred in Meribel in the late morning," the statement said.

"He suffered a severe head injury with coma on arrival, which required immediate neurosurgical intervention. He remains in a critical situation."

Carole Bouchard of L'Equipe newspaper told Sky Sports News: "It seems like his condition has deteriorated in the evening, because they are now saying he is in a coma because of maybe a brain hemorrhage so his condition is really critical and his life is in jeopardy.

"Professor Saillant who is a close personal friend of his and very well-known specialist and surgeon, attended to him. His family is there to, but people are getting more and more worried.

"They are still investigating exactly what happened as it is still not clear. The response was quick - six minutes, maybe ten at most - before they airlifted him to the nearest hospital. Then when it became clear he was deteriorating they moved him again."

Sandra Baumgartner of Sky Deutschland told Sky Sports News: "Everyone is looking to France and looking to the news. People are shocked. Because ok, he was in an accident, in hospital, but in the early afternoon it was not that serious. Now it's about his life. People are really, really shocked. Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed."

The accident happened while the 44-year-old was skiing in the French resort of Meribel in the popular Three Valleys area.

He was wearing a helmet when he hit his head on a rock.

Schumacher's spokeswoman confirmed: "Michael fell on his head when he was on a private skiing trip in the French Alps.

"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.

"He was wearing a helmet and was not alone. No one else was involved in the fall."

As news of Schumacher's condition became apparant on Sunday night, Sky F1 commentator David Croft tweeted: "Seen Michael Schumacher win plenty of great battles in his career this, the most important of all. Like all in F1, praying he pulls through."

His colleague Martin Brundle tweeted: "Come on Michael, give us one of those race stints at pure qualifying pace to win through, like you used to. You can do it."

As people know, I was never a M$ fan, but I will not wish him any ill and I do not believe reports that he fell whilst trying to block another faster and better skier from overtaking him.

I'm no doctor, but this post seems to be the most knowledgeable.

Michael's condition, as I understand it without first hand access to his scans, tests etc is serious, make no mistake about that. The doctors say they have treated the haematoma which means they cauterized the bleeding capillary and suctioned off the excess blood from his brain to reduce the intracranial pressure. The presence of bilateral lesions however means it will take days to fully evaluate Michael's condition because trauma induced lesions often cause edema ( meaning a collection of fluids which leads to swelling of the brain) which can take a number of days to manifest. Literally all they can do is to keep him sedated for a few days in the ICU to try and control the edema and take it as it comes, it would be completely irresponsible of Michael's doctors to offer any prognosis, especially to the world's med


Former head F1 doc, Gary Hartstein, posted an update of how he interprets the news from today's press conference:

"First off, this press conference was rather more reassuring than what I expected. I’ll admit that I feared an announcement of a second operation for persistently elevated intracranial pressure (ICP), and the fact that that’s not been needed is good."


The report of bi-lateral lesions is quite worrying though.

If he pulls through, it sounds like it will be a long road to recovery.  However, the next 48 hours or so is the most important.


====

On a general note, I find it really sad when things like this happen...accidents after a sportsman has retired or are unrelated to his career.  Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill, Carlos Pace, Clay Regazzoni, Michele Alboreto to name a few.  This is particularly sad since he was skiing with his 14 year old son, very traumatic for a young kid.

I always think of Abe dying in a scooter accident. So pointless somehow.

I hope Schumi pulls through. Certainly shows the importance of wearing a helmet when skiing. Something that was totally unheard off when I was young, but luckily has become very common today. I certainly would not consider hitting the slopes without my helmet.

Wow another Sunny Bono deal. He must have hit hard to hurt himself like that.

Henrik wrote:I always think of Abe dying in a scooter accident. So pointless somehow.

I hope Schumi pulls through. Certainly shows the importance of wearing a helmet when skiing. Something that was totally unheard off when I was young, but luckily has become very common today. I certainly would not consider hitting the slopes without my helmet.

There was a lot of confusion regarding whether he was wearing a helmet, but having just seen the press conference, they confirmed he was wearing one. They said had he not been, there press conference would not have been about him fighting for his life...

There has been no further news in the past 12 hours so hopefully that is a good sign, but there is still a long way to go before he is out of danger...

2nd surgery went well. What a crappy way to spend the new year.

TopContender wrote:What a crappy way to spend the new year.

Easter can be a bummer as well:

Although stable, he is still in a critical condition.

Another leading neurologist has said that it could be up to two weeks before it's known whether Schumi will survive or not.

Danny you heathen... Best laugh I've had in a bit.

It seems as though things are progressing very slowly with M$. I did hear a report from investigators saying that he was using a helmet mounted GoPro camera and the footage retrieved indicated that he hit a rock with his skis and that threw him head-first into another rock. They said he was skiing quite fast as a skier of his caliber would.

Sounds like a hell of an impact.

eso

I'm sure it was one hell of an impact. The big problem is obviously hitting a rock with your head.

I hurt myself a bit over the holidays while skiing. Going fairly slowly at a place I know well in total flat light, I suddenly went head first over a 2 meter drop. Landed on my head, but luckily on snow. Hurt like hell, and got my forehead and right eye pretty bruised, and looked like I had been in a fight. My neck hurt like hell too, but I suppose I could easily have damaged my neck a lot more there. In the end, the only side-effect was the following week at work as I had to do several presentations looking like I had been in a bar fight over New Year's. Made for some interesting comments...

So, I can very well understand how he would have hurt himself like that. It just takes a bit of bad luck and poor timing.

A friend of mine is now in hospital with a broken shoulder, done on the last day of a skiing trip.

Painful, poor fella.

They are starting to wake Michael out of the Coma, it may take a while but I hope he can recover without lasting effects.

Bad taste perhaps, but everytime I see a story about this incident I hear the Smiths singing "Schumi in a coma I know, I know, its serious".

da silva wrote:... everytime I see a story about this incident I hear the Smiths singing "Schumi in a coma I know, I know, its serious".

For F*ck sake DS... Now you've tied Morrisey to this one...

eso

eso wrote:

da silva wrote:... everytime I see a story about this incident I hear the Smiths singing "Schumi in a coma I know, I know, its serious".

For F*ck sake DS... Now you've tied Morrisey to this one...

eso

Good move there, DS.
If there's someone I hate more than Ferrari-era Schumacher, it's that bloody Morrissey...
Oh, and that muppet Bieber.

Oh lord not Bieber. The idiot that tries to drag race down a road that makes you dodge palm tree branches, and coconuts. I hope we deport the retard to send the Hollywood crowd a lesson.

TopContender wrote:Oh lord not Bieber. The idiot that tries to drag race down a road that makes you dodge palm tree branches, and coconuts. I hope we deport the retard to send the Hollywood crowd a lesson.

Yeah, I absolutely never drove like that when I was a teenager, I swear!   

Well you and Bieber both are Canadian...  

eso wrote:

da silva wrote:... everytime I see a story about this incident I hear the Smiths singing "Schumi in a coma I know, I know, its serious".

For F*ck sake DS... Now you've tied Morrisey to this one...

eso

You're welcome.   

Henrik wrote:Well you and Bieber both are Canadian...  

Hmmm, you might be on to something.

Gotta love America, drag racing bad, automatic weapons good.

TC is just bitter because the Wings lost to the Leafs at the winter classic.  

LOL!

da silva wrote:

Henrik wrote:Well you and Bieber both are Canadian...  

Hmmm, you might be on to something.

Gotta love America, drag racing bad, automatic weapons good.

TC is just bitter because the Wings lost to the Leafs at the winter classic.  

I'm only bitter that my old teammate was traded during the warmup. Your goalie played his ass off. I just wish we had him. Now I have to watch my buster of a goalie play the pipes in the Olympics. We are screwed.

TopContender wrote:

da silva wrote:

Henrik wrote:Well you and Bieber both are Canadian...  

Hmmm, you might be on to something.

Gotta love America, drag racing bad, automatic weapons good.

TC is just bitter because the Wings lost to the Leafs at the winter classic.  

I'm only bitter that my old teammate was traded during the warmup. Your goalie played his ass off. I just wish we had him. Now I have to watch my buster of a goalie play the pipes in the Olympics. We are screwed.

Yeah, too bad about Howard. I'd like to say I feel for you but I'd be lying.   

Came out today, not looking good though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27868787