Michael Schumacher in critical condition after ski wipeout

[mabrowndog]

Sounds like he pulled a Sonny Bono, with a boulder playing the role of a tree. Hope his fate isn't the same.
 
The injuries are being described as "non-life-threatening" by a ski resort spokesman, but I have trouble believing his doctors view it that way right now. I mean, the guy's comatose with severe head trauma and underwent emergency brain surgery.
 

 
Michael Schumacher, the most successful driver in Formula 1 history, is in critical condition after suffering severe head trauma in a skiing accident in the French Alps on Sunday, hospital officials said.
 
The 44-year-old German, who retired from the elite motorsport for the second time in 2012, fell and hit his head on a rock, said the director of the Meribel resort where Schumacher was skiing.
 
Schumacher was in a coma when he arrived at the University Hospital Center of Grenoble and required immediate brain surgery, hospital officials said in a written statement.
 
But doctors haven't released details about his injuries or his prognosis.
 
Resort director Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte said the incident happened while Schumacher was skiing off-piste (on unmarked slopes) Sunday morning in the mountains of Meribel resort between Georges Bauduis Piste and La Biche Piste.
 
Gernignon-Lecomte told CNN the racing star was wearing a helmet when he hit his head. Rescuers reached him minutes later and airlifted him to a nearby hospital, he said.
 

The spokesman added that the injury was "not life-threatening" and that Schumacher was conscious at the scene of the accident.

 

[acf69]

He was conscious when they found him, hence the remark from the resort spokesperson, and only at a later stage regressed.

 

[twoBshorty]

I'm not sure being conscious after a head injury is a great indicator of anything, though it's obviously better than being unconscious with brain matter leaking out your ears. Natasha Richardson was conscious and lucid for several hours after her skiing accident, then was brain-dead by the next morning. Richard Hammond on Top Gear flipped a jet car and skidded upside down at 240 MPH with his head buried in the dirt and he was conscious afterward right up until the point he was nearly dead. Hopefully Schumacher has an outcome more like Hammond and not like Natasha Richardson.

Strange that he was apparently wearing a helmet and still got hurt so badly, though. Maybe he smashed on his face?

 

[VORP Speed]

Sounds like a classic epidural hematoma. Being conscious initially is actually a very good sign. If it's caught quickly enough and surgery is performed, the prognosis is usually pretty good. If you delay diagnosis and treatment, like in Richardson's case, then you're hosed.

 

[Spacemans Bong]

There are unconfirmed reports that Damon Hill was seen on the same slope. 

 

[Leather]

What a bloody headache this must be for him.