Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is being brought out of a coma today. Doctors have decided that swelling in his brain has reduced enough to allow them to start the process of bringing the legendary driver out of a medically induced coma.
“Michael’s sedation is being reduced in order to allow the start of the waking-up process, which may take a long time,” Sabine Rehm, Michael Schumacher’s manager, told the Associated Press in a statement on Thursday.
The 45-year-old racer suffered critical injuries to his brain after falling on a rock on the right side of his head while snow skiing in the French Alps last December. Since the fall, Schumacher has been kept artificially sedated to lower his body temperature between 93.2 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce swelling in the brain, energy consumption and allow time to rest.
“It means they have probably seen the pressure in his skull reduced,” said Dr. Clemens Pahl, a brain trauma expert at King’s College Hospital in London. If Schumacher doesn’t respond positively to the change, he might be placed back in a coma.
“It could be that swelling in his brain hasn’t come to an end yet, so they might need to increase the medications again,” Pahl added. It is not uncommon for a patient with a traumatic brain injury to take several attempts to come out of an induced coma.
“This is a test to see what his function is like,” said Dr. Anthony Strong, an emeritus chair in neurosurgery at King’s College London. “Doctors will want to see if he can say `hello,’ if he probe his recollection of events and to see if he can recognize family members and remember his own identity.”
Even if Schumacher does awake from the coma, he may never be the same person he was before.
“If he pulls through, he may not be the man he was,” said Dr. Tipu Aziz, head of neurosurgery at Oxford University. “Given the length of time he’s been in (intensive care), he has clearly had a very severe head injury. It’s too early to know how intact he will be, but I would guess there is going to be some kind of lasting damage.”
