Michael Schumacher has “moments of consciousness and awakening”, his spokeswoman said on Friday, in a sign of progress months after the Formula One legend suffered devastating brain injuries in a ski accident.
Doctors put Schumacher in a medically induced coma after the December 29 accident. “Michael is making progress.... He shows moments of consciousness and awakening,” Sabine Kehm said in a statement.
The 45-year-old remains in hospital in the French Alpine city of Grenoble, where he underwent two operations to remove life-threatening blood clots before being placed into a coma.
His family said at the end of January that drugs used to keep him in his deep sleep were being reduced with a view to bringing him back to consciousness. “We are on his side during his long and difficult fight, together with the team of the hospital in Grenoble, and we keep remaining confident,” Kehm said ON fFriday.
There have already been signs of hope for the seven-time world champion. In February, his friend and former Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa was quoted as saying that Schumacher seemed to respond to him during a visit. “He is sleeping, he looks normal and he showed a few responses with his mouth,” Massa told German tabloid Bild.
And last month, Schumacher’s family said they were confident that the racing legend who defied death more than once on the track would pull through. “There sometimes are small, encouraging signs, but we also know that this is the time to be very patient”, Kehm said at the time in a statement.
“It is very hard to comprehend for all of us that Michael, who had overcome a lot of precarious situations in the past, has been hurt so terribly in such a banal situation,” the statement read.
Schumacher survived a motorbike accident in Spain in 2009, during which he suffered head and neck injuries but was released from hospital after just five hours.
And even after retiring from the high-risk world of racing, he kept pursuing other high-thrill hobbies as the holder of a pilot’s license, an accomplished motorbike rider, parachutist, skier and mountain climber.