Michael Schumacher Crash: Doctors Probe Brain to See Where He Suffered Damage

Michael Schumacher Crash: Doctors Probe Brain to See Where He Suffered Damage
A view of the French Alps ski resort of Meribel, and the rocks between the slopes where former seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher injured his head during a ski accident. Schumacher has been in a medically induced coma in the Grenoble hospital since Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013, when he struck his head on a rock while on a family vacation. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
Zachary Stieber
1/13/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

Michael Schumacher remains in a medically-induced coma following his skiing crash, and doctors have begun probing his brain to see where he suffered massive damage. Schumacher is in critical but stable condition.

Doctors in Grenoble, France, where the former F1 racing legend is being treated, removed a small part of his skull over the weekend to try to relieve pressure on his brain, according to Zurich Tagesanzeiger, a paper in Zurich, cited by the Daily Mail. 

Schumacher was skiing with friends and his 14-year-old son Mich when he fell on rocks at the resort of Meribel. He was skiing off the trail, which is known as backcountry, or off-piste skiing, a very dangerous sport. 

Doctors told Germany’s Bild newspaper that they are conducting tests to find out which parts of his brain are functioning and which are dangerous. There are great fears among the medical team of “unexpected complications,” such as brain hamorrhage and infection. 

Schumacher might not have survived the fall at all if he wasn’t wearing a helmet, according to his anaesthetist Jean-Francois Payen. 

“It’s too early to say what is going to happen and to have a prognosis. Taking into consideration the very violent shock, his helmet did protect him to a certain extent, of course,” he told reporters after the accident.

“Somebody who would have this kind of accident without a helmet, certainly, he would not have got to here.”

The horrific crash has prompted a doctor who frequently treats skiiers in the French Alps to speak out about the dangers of backcountry skiing, adding that he himself has given it up until his daughters are “old enough to fend for themselves.”