Former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher
is able to recognise his wife and two children, a year after he
sustained severe head injuries in a skiing accident, a friend has said.
Philippe Streiff, also a former Formula One driver, suggested in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Sundaythat Schumacher might eventually walk again with the help of crutches. It was the most optimistic assessment since a doctor who had treated the multiple world champion in hospital in Grenoble told the media two months ago that he had made “some progress”.
Streiff said the 45-year-old was improving and was conscious. “But he hasn’t yet recovered the power of speech, and communicates with his eyes. Nevertheless he is beginning to recognise his family, his wife and his children, but has big memory problems,” he said.
Streiff, who has used a wheelchair since a racing accident in 1989, was among those to visit Schumacher while he spent six months in an induced coma at a hospital in Grenoble. He regained consciousness in June.
Schumacher was moved to hospital in Lausanne, and from there to the family home on the Swiss shore of lake Geneva for rehabilitation in September. Doctors, however, remain cautious about his chances of recovery, and his family has asked for privacy. Schumacher was skiing in Méribel, the French Alps, on 29 December last year when he fell. His helmet broke from the impact.
Streiff, who lives close to the Grenoble university hospital where Schumacher was treated, said his information came mainly from a French doctor and mutual friend, Gérard Saillant. He said he was also in touch with Schumacher’s wife, Corinne.
The seven-time world champion remains paralysed and “is starting to work on that”, said Streiff. “In the long term, and ideally, he’ll be able to maybe hope to walk with crutches one day as his spinal cord wasn’t damaged. But you can’t predict anything.”
In October, a doctor at the Grenoble hospital, Jean-François Payen, said patients with similar brain injuries to Schumacher’s can take from “one year to three years” to recover, and that patience was needed. Medical experts suggest that the German’s fitness and age may aid recovery.
Comparing Schumacher’s condition with his own situation, Streiff said that “as for getting back mobility and speech, a lot will depend on the rehabilitation. Every case is so different”.
Streiff added Saillant had said the chances of recovery for driver Jules Bianchi, who suffered grave head injuries in an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix in October, were “much less” than for Schumacher. The impact on Bianchi’s brain, after his car skidded off a wet track, had been “much more violent”, and the news was “much more worrying”, said Streiff. The Marussia driver is now being treated in France after coming out of an artificial coma last month.
Philippe Streiff, also a former Formula One driver, suggested in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Sundaythat Schumacher might eventually walk again with the help of crutches. It was the most optimistic assessment since a doctor who had treated the multiple world champion in hospital in Grenoble told the media two months ago that he had made “some progress”.
Streiff said the 45-year-old was improving and was conscious. “But he hasn’t yet recovered the power of speech, and communicates with his eyes. Nevertheless he is beginning to recognise his family, his wife and his children, but has big memory problems,” he said.
Streiff, who has used a wheelchair since a racing accident in 1989, was among those to visit Schumacher while he spent six months in an induced coma at a hospital in Grenoble. He regained consciousness in June.
Schumacher was moved to hospital in Lausanne, and from there to the family home on the Swiss shore of lake Geneva for rehabilitation in September. Doctors, however, remain cautious about his chances of recovery, and his family has asked for privacy. Schumacher was skiing in Méribel, the French Alps, on 29 December last year when he fell. His helmet broke from the impact.
Streiff, who lives close to the Grenoble university hospital where Schumacher was treated, said his information came mainly from a French doctor and mutual friend, Gérard Saillant. He said he was also in touch with Schumacher’s wife, Corinne.
The seven-time world champion remains paralysed and “is starting to work on that”, said Streiff. “In the long term, and ideally, he’ll be able to maybe hope to walk with crutches one day as his spinal cord wasn’t damaged. But you can’t predict anything.”
In October, a doctor at the Grenoble hospital, Jean-François Payen, said patients with similar brain injuries to Schumacher’s can take from “one year to three years” to recover, and that patience was needed. Medical experts suggest that the German’s fitness and age may aid recovery.
Comparing Schumacher’s condition with his own situation, Streiff said that “as for getting back mobility and speech, a lot will depend on the rehabilitation. Every case is so different”.
Streiff added Saillant had said the chances of recovery for driver Jules Bianchi, who suffered grave head injuries in an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix in October, were “much less” than for Schumacher. The impact on Bianchi’s brain, after his car skidded off a wet track, had been “much more violent”, and the news was “much more worrying”, said Streiff. The Marussia driver is now being treated in France after coming out of an artificial coma last month.
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