Slow, but steady. That is all we have been hearing about the man who lived all of his life at maximum speed. Michael Schumacher’s snail-speed progress is talked about, analyzed, carefully examined, turned upside down and then talked about again. An expert in anesthesia and emergency medicine, says this is nothing but the long goodbye of a champion.
It has already been a year, one month and 18 days since Michael Schumacher’s terrible ski crash in the French Alps in Meribel.
The care costs have already spiraled up to 11 million euros and with the sponsors (Mercedes-Benz decided to stick with him, no matter the circumstances) turning their back on him, that can’t possibly be easy, not even if he was once the wealthiest man in sports. And yet for the family, there is still no guarantee that the seven time world champion is ever going to make it back to normal.
Michael Schumacher’s mansion, by the Lake Geneva
“The progress is painfully slow and there is no miracle on the horizon”, says an insider quoted by the Express website.
A former medical delegate for the Formula 1 former world champion, Dr. Gary Harstein, trashes all the apparently good news on the former Mercedes driver.
His rollercoaster recovery has been a complete black-out to the media. No learning to walk news, no problems expressing himself news. People say that no news is usually good news, but not when there is no news for 14 months.
Schumacher can communicate by blinking. He only has moments of awareness. He cries when he hears his family’s voices. He is still fed and breathing by the aid of tubes. For every step forward there is always one going backwards.
Happier times. Former Mercedes driver waving to his fans
The expert is doubtful when it comes to Schumacher’s consciousness periods and is straightforward when it comes to life expectancy: “For a comatose patient who does not improve neurologically, life expectancy is measured in months to a relatively few years.”
A team of 15 medical experts are watching Michael Schumacher round the clock, in his clinic-like environment built in his mansion in Gland, Switzerland. He undergoes physiotherapy every day and is assessed by the end of every week. He now weighs only 45 kilograms.
The world – says American doctor Gary Hartstein – is now watching the “long goodbye” of its greatest racing star.
