Schumacher injured in Skiing accident (out of coma)

[SGWilko]

Amen - lets hope it's a full recovery.

However, when he sees the new for 2014 F1 cars, he'll wonder just WTF is going on!

[i_max2k2]

Hoping for the best.

[edv]

Unofficial accounts say he has blinked his eyes and also responded to voice.

[truefan72]

that is excellent news

[BleAivano]

article in the telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motors ... ports.html

[anfield5]

Hopefully the good signs continue and he grows stronger as he is revived.

Keep up the fight Michael!

[Zico]

A poster on another forum who happens to be a medic gave a fairly detailed explanation of Mikes likely medical situation and procedures in laymans terms which I found very helpful. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing it with you guys on here..


"So, lemme give you the basics..

He had multiple epidural hematomas. An epidural hematoma is a collection of blood between the dura mater(sometimes called the tough matter)it's the fibrous covering of the brain that carries the arterial blood supply. What happened is that the inside of the skull, which is actually very rough, cut a few of those arteries. What happens then is that the blood collects, sometimes slow, sometimes rapidly. The case here is that he was unconscious, followed by a time frame of being awake, then essentially, decompenstating into a period of unconsciousness.

The part where that all goes bad is if he would have bled enough to push the brain our of the skull through the magnum foramen(herniation), that's where the spinal cord enters the skull. If that occurs it's 100% fatal.

So, what was done here, is that a head CT or MRI showed the bleeds, and he was subsequently sedated, intubated, and placed on the ventilator. He would have then been taken to surgery to remove the trapped blood. That may have been a craniotomy, or a burr-hole. In extreme circumstances, the can remove portions of the skull, and allow the brain to swell through them, then replace those later on.

He will have been on sedation for brain rest and comfort, with a pressure bolt to measure severity of intra-cranial pressures, a constant EEG for brain activity and IV feeds.

Currently he likely has a tracheostomy, and will slowly be weaned from sedation to judge level of function. until he is fully weaned, we won't know level of dysfunction.

It may be serious, it may be something as simple as memory issues. The fact that he is responding is a great sign..but, it needs to be approached with great restraint. This may be the highest level of function he will ever have, then again, he may be back to drifting Ferrari's like the Stig in two years.

Very hard to say. I prefer the latter to the former, but, neuro injuries are damn near impossible to predict."

[steveaki13]

I wasn't sure that I was going to post this, but reading about how they are deducing Michael's sedation I decided I would go ahead and give my story.

My mother had and now lives with a massive brain injury. I remember things that were similar to Michael Schumachers situation, back in 2005 when it all happened.

It was a massive brain haemorrhage and she was in a induced coma after many operations for about 4 weeks. They then began lifting the sedation a lot quicker than they have with Schumacher, but it was clear my mother had a lot of major damage.

I have been in the situation of his family, but now my Mum has partially recovered. Sadly some things she will never recover from. My mother was paralyzed on the whole left side, and although she is still weak on that side, it has eased and she can walk and live independently (i.e going down the town or on the bus) and although it doesn't sound much its great she has a life, that she can enjoy. Nothing worse than seeing someone you love being unable to get out and about. Luckily she now has that freedom.

Unfortunately she is unable to speak which is the biggest sadness.

At the time of my mothers stroke, she was given a less than 10% of surviving the day, and yet now she looks after herself most of the time and goes out and about.

So even if Michael does have some perminant damage he could still live a good life with his family and enjoy his life even if he doesn't get back to driving cars again.

All in all I am just saying that although that would be sad, it would also be a blessing for his family to have him back. Of course being a younger and stronger person, then maybe Michael can recover more.

I guess I am just saying that from a family who has experienced a similar situation, there is still hope of a great life ahead.

Good luck Michael.

[airshifter]

Steveaki13,

Thanks for posting that. I'm sure it wasn't easy to do, with wishing your mother could have fully recovered. But I think you bring up some very valid points in that any type of brain injury is an unknown to some extent, and not an exacting science. In your case having a family member go from little chance of survival to mostly taking care of themselves is an example of just how unknown it is, and how you are fortunate enough to still have her around.

I hope things work out well for Michael, but being overly optimistic is probably just that, and only time will tell how much his injury has affected him.

In recent months I've spent some time around military veterans who have suffered TBIs. Some recover almost 100%, some lose certain motor skills, and some recover very little. There are also those that recover a great deal in many areas, but certain functions are grossly restricted, and the frustration it causes them is just unreal. Many of them end up with severe depression, and many social walls form around them. It's given me a much better understanding of just how difficult brain injuries can be. I hope someday they get a better grip on it so no human will ever have to endure the strains they do now.

[steveaki13]

Thanks airshifter, you're right it is a strange thing the brain and thus depending on just where blood or damage occurs can depend on what the outcome is. My mother was unlucky that it wiped out here speech and communication sector, thus cannot speak, and struggles to read or write and yet memory is superb and more or less is fully active again physically.

We overcome communication problems, with emotions and gestures and drawings funnily enough. Its not easy but its still better than we could have hoped at the time.

It remains to be seen whether Michael has any of these issues, but despite what the wider world hopes, his family will just want their father/brother/husband back and if there are some problems along the way they will deal with them. That's the first stage.