Michael Schumacher in coma, 'critical' after France ski accident

[Basil]

Michael Schumacher in coma, 'critical' after France ski accident​

Schumacher is in hospital after suffering a "serious" head injury in France while skiing Sunday, according to the French Alps ski resort he was in and police who gave him first aid

GRENOBLE (FRANCE): Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time Formula One champion, has undergone brain surgery and is in a "critical" condition after striking his head in a ski accident in the French Alps yesterday, doctors said.

The 44-year-old German was "suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival, which required an immediate neurosurgical operation," the hospital in the southeastern French city of Grenoble said in a brief statement.

"He remains in a critical condition." Schumacher had been skiing off-piste with his 14-year-old son in the upmarket Meribel resort, where he reportedly has a property, when he fell and hit his head on a rock.

He was airlifted to a local hospital, then, an hour later, to the better-equipped Grenoble facility. A surgeon and brain specialist from Paris was rushed in to oversee his treatment.

The director of the Meribel resort, Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte, had said just after the accident that Schumacher had been wearing a helmet and was "conscious but a little agitated", suggesting he had not received life-threatening injuries.

But when Schumacher then fell into coma, doctors realised the damage was worse than initially feared.

Two mountain police officers who gave first aid to Schumacher said he was suffering "severe cranial trauma" when they got to him and a helicopter was brought in to evacuate him within 10 minutes.