This Friday, December 29, marks 10 years since Michael Schumacher’s terrible skiing accident. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion is suffering from serious after-effects that prevent him from communicating and moving. Exactly a decade ago, on December 29, 2013, Michael Schumacher, recently retired from Formula 1 racing, suffered a violent fall while skiing during his family vacation in Méribel, in Savoy. His head hit the edge of a rock and the impact broke his helmet.
When the rescuers arrived, the man nicknamed “The Red Baron” was “dazed” by the impact, “but conscious”. He was rushed to hospital, where he remained in a coma for several months. In the evening, the University Hospital of Grenoble revealed that the former champion “suffered a severe head trauma with coma on arrival, which required immediate neurosurgical intervention”. Michael Schumacher also had a brain haemorrhage and his life prognosis was in danger. When he woke up six months later, nothing was the same again. Even today, it is difficult to know Michael Schumacher’s state of health, as his family is very discreet on this subject.
The latter keeps him away from the media and does not reveal any information about him. The Formula 1 world champion can no longer walk or stand, and finds it impossible to communicate with those around him. Michael Schumacher is cared for 24 hours a day by around fifteen doctors, nurses and physiotherapists. He has been living in a medical suite at the family villa in Gland, Switzerland, since September 2014. He is “a prisoner of an immobile body”, according to Gaëtan Vigneron, F1 commentator and author for 30 years at the heart of Formula 1. His younger brother Ralf gave some news to the local media, whose testimony was picked up by the Daily Mail: “I miss the Michael of the past.”
Life is sometimes unfair. Michael has been very lucky throughout his life. And then, this tragic accident happened… That day was full of bad luck. This terrible fate changed our family forever. Fortunately, medicine has advanced a lot and offers many opportunities, but nothing is the same anymore.