This Friday December 29, 2013 was fulfilled 10 years since Michael Schumacher’s accident while skiing in Meribel station, in the French Alps. A decade has passed and little has been known since then about the ‘Kaiser’s’ health. Below are the details you should know about the accident and everything that happened during these 10 years.
1
What was Schumacher’s accident?
Michael was skiing with his son Mick and when he reached the intersection between the blue run and the red run, he entered the area between the two runs, off the slopes. There, he hits a rock hidden under the snow, causing his head to hit another rock.
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What did the accident investigation say?
Off track “on purpose”
The French prosecutor’s office announced on February 17, 2014, just over a month after Michael Schumacher’s accident, that it had closed the investigation into the incident that took place at Méribel Station.
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It all happened at an intersection between a blue and a red line. An off-piste area is located between the two slopes. Michael walks past and falls, hitting his head on a rock. Is the track marked wrong? Did you go off-piste on purpose? Do you want to help someone? According to Albertville prosecutor Patrick Quincy at a press conference that day, “Schumacher deliberately chose to go” skiing in the off-piste area where he suffered the accident.
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Quincy emphasized that the slopes of Méribel were marked and marked in accordance with the rules in force and that the security videos did not show that Michael left the marked slopes to help or rescue anyone.
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Speed is not a major factor
Despite what many may assume when learning about the serious accident that Michael Schumacher suffered while skiing, speed had nothing to do with the crash suffered by the German driver. “Speed is not a particularly important element for us,” prosecutor Patrick Quincy said of the crash investigation. For his part, researcher Stephane Bozon assured that it is not possible to know the exact speed at which Schumacher was going, but he assured that “it is the speed of a very good skier on a slope that is not too steep.”
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Helmet camera speculation
According to Olivier Fourcade, a ski instructor at that resort, Shumacher was surprised by a rock that knocked him off balance and caused him to fall. However, the same instructor confirmed that the key could be in the camera that the pilot had placed on his helmet, which could have aggravated his injuries by hooking his skis and then puncturing his helmet.
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It should also be noted that prosecutor Patrick Quincy ruled that Schumacher’s skis suffered from any problem that could have caused the accident. According to the prosecutor, the ski was almost new.
5
Schumacher tells Corinna he doesn’t want to go skiing
Corinna Schumacher, wife of the ‘Kaiser’, admitted that Michael told her that he did not want to ski that day and that he preferred to change his plans. “The snow is not perfect. “We can go to Dubai to skydive,” he told her in a phrase revealed by Corinna herself in the only documentary authorized by the family, on Netflix, published in 2021. “It is bad luck,” Corinna said of the accident.
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Two initial operations
The Grenoble Hospital Center reported in a first medical report that Michael suffered “severe head trauma with coma on arrival,” requiring “immediate neurosurgical intervention.” Radio Monte Carlo said Michael suffered a brain hemorrhage and his life was in danger.
Two days later, when a second intervention was required in which the hematoma, located on the left side of the brain, was drained and a device was installed to reduce intracranial pressure, the hospital spoke of “slight improvement.”
However, doctors clarified that Schumacher’s skull had multiple bruises throughout, “some on the brain itself and not just around it and some more accessible than others.” And they emphasized that the injuries were “varied and diffuse” and that “there is still a lot of bleeding in the brain.”
7
He fell into a coma 6 months later.
Michael Schumacher did not come out of his coma until June 26, 2014. On that day it was announced that the 7-time F1 world champion would leave the CHU in Grenoble to be transferred to the Lausanne Hospital in Switzerland.
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A medical home
On September 9, 2014, he was transferred to his home in Geneva. There, the silence about a major person in the whole world began. In 2018, the ‘Daily Mail’ claimed that the family was spending around 55,000 euros per week on medical care and physiotherapy for Michael at home. In addition, it is said that there will be between 15 and 20 people working day and night at his house to take care of the pilot, under a strict confidentiality contract.
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His manager couldn’t visit him
Very few people have access to the medical fort where Michael Schumacher is located. Corinna wanted to respect Michael’s privacy and saw very few of him. This confidentiality goes to such an extent that even Michael Schumacher’s representative in F1, Willi Weber, cannot visit him.
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Weber explained in 2021 that Corinna would not allow him to visit Michael because of a “mistake” he made. Apparently because she didn’t show up to Michael at the hospital after the accident. “I made a mistake. Back then, I didn’t get on the plane and go to the hospital right away. I saw the crowd and thought I didn’t have to wait in line at that moment.” Willi thought that he shouldn’t wait any longer and that he would visit Michael later, but he was wrong. “Wrong! immediately. I’m miserable.” “I suffered like a dog,” he commented at the time.
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Jean Todt, one of those who visit him
One of the people who visited Michael Schumacher most often was the former president of the FIA and former boss of the German during his golden era at Ferrari, Jean Todt. In fact, he was one of the few who gave any pill of Michael’s status during these ten years. “I saw the Brazilian Grand Prix in Switzerland with Michael Schumacher. He doesn’t give up and keeps fighting,” Todt said in 2018.
Eleven
Why was Schumacher’s condition a secret?
“Michael is in good hands and we are doing everything we can to help him. “We follow Michael’s will to keep a subject as sensitive as health as always, private,” said his wife, Corinna Schumacher, on the occasion of Michael’s 50th birthday on January 3, 2019. This is the official which is why the Schumacher family does not want to give specific details about how the 7-time F1 champion is doing.
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Regenerative treatment?
In 2019, Le Parisien said that Michael Schumacher received a regenerative treatment with stem cells in Paris to obtain an anti-inflammatory effect throughout the body and that he consulted a doctor specializing in heart failure.
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Schumacher’s medical records were stolen
In 2014, the theft of Michael Schumacher’s medical records was reported. “The stolen documents and data have been sold for several days. The seller claims it is Michael Schumacher’s medical history. The theft has already been reported and the authorities have been involved,” said Sabine Kehm, spokeswoman for to the seven-time champion . Apparently, the seller contacted various media outlets to ask for 50,000 euros for that story.
“We note that both the purchase and publication of these documents are prohibited. The content of any medical file is completely private and confidential, it should not be exposed to the public,” the Schumacher family added in a statement.
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Million dollar photo theft
In 2020, the newspaper ‘Mirror’ announced that Corinna Schumacher reported to the police that someone had entered her home and taken several photos of the former pilot. According to this information, the author of the snapshots put them up for sale for more than 1.2 million euros. In 2016, the ‘Daily Mail’ already said that a photographer was trying to sell a photo of Michael in bed to some German media for a million euros.
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Corinna’s clearest words
There is no concrete statement about the state of health of Michael Schumacher. But you can see what the German is doing through the statements of his wife Corinna Schumacher and his son Mick Schumacher.
“Of course I miss Michael every day, but I’m not the only one who misses him: his children, family, father, everyone close to him. Everyone misses Michael, but Michael is here. In a different way, but it’s here and that’s what makes us stronger,” her husband said in the Netflix documentary.
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The words of Mick Schumacher
“Since the accident, the experiences, the typical moments in a family, are gone. Not at all like before. And in my opinion this is very unfair. I think my father and I have a different understanding now. I think we will speak almost the same language, of motorsports, and we will have a lot to talk about. And that’s what I can’t stop thinking about. I was thinking how cool that would be, I hope. “I would give anything to have that…” comments his son, Mick Schumacher, in the Netflix documentary. Words that say a lot without revealing exactly what is going on with Michael.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
