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A helicopter is seen outside the Grenoble hospital where the seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is being treated in Grenoble, France, Monday, December 30, 2013.
Reports in France suggest that Michael Schumacher has blinked for the first time since being placed in an induced coma, as medics begin their gradual and difficult process of bringing him back to consciousness.
According to French paper L’Equipe: “After gradually reducing the sedation of the patient, the team of Professor Emmanuel Gay [the medic overseeing Schumacher’s treatment] has been doing neurological tests since Monday. During this first stage, the patient blinked. Schumacher appears to show this type of reawakening.”
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In addition, SKY News is also reporting that Schumacher is responding positively to the instructions being given by the medical team.
These reports have come just hours after Sabine Kehm, Schumacher’s manager, confirmed French reports that the seven-time Formula One world champion was responding positively to his neurological tests.
”Michael’s sedation is being reduced in order to allow the start of the waking-up process, which may take a long time,” she said. ”For the protection of the family, it was originally agreed by the interested parties to communicate this information only once this process was consolidated.”
”The family of Michael Schumacher is again requesting for their privacy, and to not disturb the doctors treating Michael in their work.”
According to medical experts, waking up from an artificially-induced coma could take several days, and there is also the possibility that the awakening may not happen at all. Gerard Audibert, a neurosurgeon at the University Hospital in Nancy, eastern France, has been quoted as saying, “There is a grey zone (between wake and sleep) that lasts several days, but it varies from one patient to another.”
Schumacher had suffered a traumatic brain injury in his near-fatal skiing accident last year on December 29 in Meribel.
