Michael Schumacher was scheduled for a stem cell surgery this October in an apparent attempt to repair his damaged nervous system, caused by a skiing accident in December 2013 in the French Alps. The Formula One icon will come under the knife and reports said doctors are racing against time to arrest Schumacher's deteriorating health condition.
After six years of being confined in a sickbed, the German racing driver is thought to be dealing with a new round of medical complications. His muscles are said to be weakening and bones are becoming more fragile.
Schumacher is now suffering from muscle atrophy and Mirror said in a report that the condition was largely brought about by the retired athlete's inactivity since his near-fatal accident. In addition, the F1 champion has osteoporosis, meaning his bones have significantly weakened, again due to lack of physical activity.
The latest medical update on the seven-time racing winner seemed to confirm the depiction offered by the famed neurosurgeon Nicola Acciari on Schumacher's possible physical state. The doctor said the brain trauma suffered by the German would most likely have already led to bodily deterioration.
"We must imagine a person very different from the one we remember on the track, with a very altered and deteriorated organic, muscular and skeletal structure," Acciari was reported as saying.
While the picture painted was devastating to fans following the developments on Schumacher's medical struggles in the past six years, they remain optimistic that the surgery to be carried out by Dr. Philippe Menasche will do wonders. The hope is for the stem cell procedure to regenerate the injured driver's nervous system although Menasche himself has not provided a clear path to recovery for his patient.
In any case, the best image of Schumacher since that fateful day in December 2013 came from his former Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, who claimed earlier this year that his friend is caught in "a difficult phase."
"The main thing about all this is that we know his situation is not easy," the Express reported Massa as saying.
In making the statement, Massa said Schumacher and his family deserve privacy and that should be respected by his supporters and the media people.
It has been pretty much the same plea made by Corinna, Schumacher's wife, in the past. She insisted that the health condition of her husband is a private matter and all information on the matter will be kept from the public.
However, Corinna allowed a bit of detail on Schumacher at the end of 2019. She revealed that her husband's recovery can be described as "small steps" that hopefully would lead to "big things."
