“Michael Schumacher is in a wheelchair and still unable to speak”, says long term friend Phillippe Streiff, who has just visited the former Mercedes driver.
Almost an year after the terrible crash in the French ski resort Meribel, Michael Schumacher is still paralysed and unable to speak. According to his friend Phillippe Streiff, the sevent-time world champion has memory problems. Streiff is confronting similiar problems, after his 1989 crash in pre-season tests at the Interlagos racetrack in Brasil. The accident left him a quadraplegic. The former driver says: “It is very difficult for Schumacher, he can’t speak. Like me, he is in a wheelchair, paralysed. He has memory problems and speech problems.”
Streiff has visited Michael Schumacher several times, while the former Mercedes driver was at the Grenoble Hospital, then in the Lausanne care unit and also at home, on the shore of Lake Geneva.
Michael Schumacher smashed his head against rocks in a terrible accident on an intermediate level ski piste, on December 29th, while holidaying with his family in Meribel, where he owns a chalet. After half a year of being in an induced coma estate, Michael Schumacher showed first signs of consciousness and minimal interaction with the people around him.
Right now, he is back home, in a hospital-like 24/7 care that is estimated to cost over 100 000 euros per month.
Find out more about Michael Schumacher’s struggle to heal!
Meanwhile, the former champion’s website is back online, to mark 20 years since first world title in Formula 1 title, defeating great rival Damon Hill at the Australian Grand Prix (13th of November). The website has a brandnew design and features an interactive fan area for everyone to send messages of encouragement.
And speaking of encouragement, although Michael Schumacher has shown little progress in 11 months since the crash, his former anesthisia expert, the French doctor Jean-Francois Payen, states that Schumacher needs time. „We are in a time scale that ranges from one to three years, so it takes patience”, Payen says.
