FORMER FORMULA ONE champion Michael Schumacher has left a Swiss hospital and will continue his treatment at home after a devastating ski accident in December, his family said in a statement today.
In a surprise announcement, a spokeswoman for the family of the retired German racing star said he was being moved from a top-notch hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne to his home in nearby Gland.
“Henceforth Michael’s rehabilitation will take place at his home,” Sabine Kehm said, stressing that “considering the severe injuries he suffered, progress has been made in the past weeks and months”.
There is still, however, a long and difficult road ahead,” she cautioned, providing no further details on Schumacher’s health status.
The 45-year-old slammed his head on a rock while skiing with his son and friends in the French Alps in December.
The seven-time world champion underwent two operations to remove life-threatening blood clots after the freak accident that shocked the world, before being plunged into a medically induced coma.
He emerged from the coma in June and was transferred from a French hospital to the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), renowned for it neurology experts.
“We would like extend our gratitude to the entire team at CHUV Lausanne for their thorough and competent work,” Tuesday’s statement said.
“We ask that the privacy of Michael’s family continue to be respected, and that speculations about his state of health are avoided,” it added.
Known as the “Red Baron” in reference to an ace World War I German fighter pilot, Schumacher made his debut in 1991 and dominated Formula One not long after.
A ruthless and at times controversial competitor, the German won an unprecedented 91 races, and seven world titles including five in a row with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004.
He first retired aged 37 but was unable to resist the lure of the track. In 2010, he came out of retirement but failed to re-enact his previous performances, and he quit for good in 2012.
Retirement did not dull his relish for adrenaline, however, and he kept pursuing thrill-seeking hobbies as the holder of a pilot’s licence, an accomplished motorbike rider, parachutist, skier and mountain climber.
He 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.
Best of luck to him and his family
Good news for a change !
Not sure I’d call it good news, he’s still in very bad condition by all accounts. Hope he makes a decent recovery.
@Ray: Of course it’s good news! There was a very good chance at the time that he wasn’t going to recover at all.
hardly good news, the german papers are a lot more blunt and say he is out of danger but is in a vegetative state
Exactly doc. At the moment he’s not even in a position to judge if this is good news….and that’s bad
There’s no pleasing some people, is there? Thanks to medical science this man is still alive. It’s great news.
The body may be alive I’d just wonder at what brain activity there is….
How is it alive if you can’t have independent thought, feed yourself or move?
Michael Schumacher the best F1 driver the world has ever known and a great guy.
18 reds for a sick hero, lots of trolls out today. Or could the reds be from political parasites who have me in their sights for my previous comment on eliminating payments to our freeloading but mostly useless public representatives?
If you were mad at 18 red thumbs, you must be boiling over at 22?
What a fighter !!
Im sure he will be much more comfortable at Home! Keep fighting schuey :)
I wish people would stop bickering about whether it’s good news or not.
This man was at death’s door, endured life threatening surgeries, induced comas, round the clock intensive care and has since been discharged from an ICU unit and is now allowed home from hospital.
If that were one of your family members, you’d be delighted with that kind of progress after such a terrible accident.
Try and find some light at the end of the tunnel instead of waiting for the headlamp of an oncoming train.
I wouldn’t wish such misery on any family member by forcing them to live as a vegetable, just for my own selfish desire to keep them alive.
Have you ever heard anyone say: if I end up a vegetable, keep me alive for as long as possible, thanks
I told my husband earlier that I would rather he pull the plug if it happens to me. I don’t want that life for myself, being kept alive just to keep my family from saying goodbye to me.
I don’t want to be on life support ever. Medical advances have been great but I never want to be kept artificially alive with little or no mental capacity. I never want to be tube fed. I’m happy to die when my time is up.
I don’t know his condition but if he’s in a vegetative state that’s no quality of life
I wish his family courage and peace in the days ahead – it will not be easy for them
Hero
Good luck to you. I pray you make a full recovery. And I think you will.
The best F1 driver the world has ever known has passed on many years ago, but I do hope Michael the best and hope he can live a life with meaning. I am sure he will face the future challenges with as much bravery as he ever.
Ok Larry its not a thread for comparisons. He is the most successful F1 driver of all time.
Larry, maybe Emc2 should have said best of his generation would you agree with that, I imagine the comment was made with the best intensions and not as a bait for comparisons, I hope this gifted and multiple world champion makes a full recovery
Ayrton Senna
Think they’ve done renovations so I’m sure he’ll be a lot more comfortable at home…..once they don’t put him in the press with the rest of the vegetables.
Bela, after a comment like that words fail me
Bela you should no better after what happened to poor Rita
Bela ill get that daughter of yours Suzanne after ya with the fireside shovel if ya don’t quit that!
All the best schumy!
Hahaha you get forced to watch it to solidarity my brother
We don’t know that Schuey is in a vegetative state, all we know is that he is continuing his rehabilitation & obviously has made decent progress in being discharged & allowed to go home.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s vegetative/torturing his family/stuck on life support so enough with the grandiose statements about misery/death rather than being a vegetable.
That’s arrogant assumption, nothing else.
Agreed
Yes Larry & its also your personal opinion just like emc has his personal opinion. Its not relevant to the thread.
Prost lauda
I wasn’t around for senna,lauda or Prost but I’ve seen the YouTube footage and the cars they were driving were manual with clutches with practically no driver aids and the skill involved is immense,however Schumacher will to win and total dominance of f1 for 7 or 8 seasons is amazing.Keep fighting schuey
I was a wee kid I remember Graham Hill, Nelson Pique, Prost, Senna, Jean Alasie (? Sp) but only started watching religiously when schumacher came on the scene. Went to Silverstone at 15 when Damon Hill knocked schuey off. 3am rises to watch the f1 live.
My dad got me into f1, i watched it from my baby years as dad always had it on.
Not Graham Hill meant Nigel Mansell. Graham was before my time but dad spoke of him often.