Michael Schumacher no longer "bedridden or surviving on tubes"
This coming January 3 will see Michael Schumacher, arguably the greatest F1 driver of all-time, turn 50, though under what can be described as unfortunate circumstances. After retiring from the tracks for a second time after the 2012 season, the fiercely private German was skiing with his then-14-year-old son Mick in the French Alps on December 29, 2013, when he tragically hit his head on a rock and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
He was subsequently placed in a medically induced coma for six months before he left the hospital in Grenoble for further rehabilitation at the University Hospital of Lausanne. Then, in September 2014, he was relocated to his £50 million ($63 million) mansion on the banks of Lake Geneva in Gland, a small town of 13,000 in Switzerland, and continues to receive medical treatment and rehabilitation privately.
The end of this month will mark five years since the horrific accident, and the insistence on secrecy by his wife Corina has meant that the media still knows little of his condition beyond the fact that the seven-time F1 champion could "not walk," something that was confirmed by his German lawyer Felix Damm to a Hamburg Court in 2016.
Then, this past August, "close relatives" revealed to French magazine Paris Match that the 49-year-old was showing emotions and "cries" when he sees natural beauty.
However, if the recent rumors are to be believed, Schumacher could now be in the next stage of his recovery. According to the Daily Mail, he is no longer bed-ridden or existing on tubes, though he is still said to be receiving extensive nursing and therapy care that has been estimated to cost more than £50,000 ($63,000) a week.
His father, Rolf, confirmed that Schumacher was living at the chateau, dispelling rumors that he had been transferred to a £30 million holiday home the family had purchased in Majorca or to a specialist brain trauma hospital in America.
It also revealed that he was living with close family in the main body of the mansion rather than, as rumors had previously suggested, in an outbuilding which acted as a special medical facility that had been constructed in response to his injuries.
German magazine Bravo reported that medics are now preparing to move the 49-year-old to a clinic in Dallas that specializes in the treatment of brain injuries.
Speaking to the magazine, clinic director Mark Weeks seemed to hint that the F1 driver was indeed going to receive treatment from them, saying, "We have a lot of experience with patients who are suffering this kind of trauma. There is probably no clinic in Europe that treats as many cases as we do."