Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NEW STEM CELL OP HOPE FOR SCHUEY
Bid to fix nervous system six years after ski fall brain injury
FORMULA One legend Michael Schumacher is set to have a new stem cell operation in a bid to fix his damaged nervous system.
The procedure will replace damaged cells with healthy ones harvested from bone marrow or blood.
One source claimed it could happen “in the next few days”.
It comes six-and-a-half years after the seven-time F1 world champion suffered a traumatic brain injury in a skiing fall.
Schumacher, 51, is thought to have been housebound since leaving hospital and has reportedly developed osteoporosis and muscle atrophy.
Dr Nicola Acciari, a leading neurosurgeon, said: “The goal is to regenerate Michael’s nervous system.” He added that despite huge advances in stem cell techniques “we are not able to say what the results will be”.
Schumacher had a similar procedure last year, carried out by specialist Dr Philippe Menasche in Paris.
Dr Menasche, who pioneered the technique of grafting stem cells on to damaged hearts, will perform the latest operation.
Schumacher was in a medically induced coma for six months after hitting his head on a rock in the off-piste accident in the French Alps in 2013.
After a total 254 days in hospital he returned to his home on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
He has remained there ever since with his wife, Corinna, apart from occasional trips to hospital for treatment.
Dr Menasche confirmed earlier this year that Schumacher had undergone heart and vascular surgery last September at Paris’s Georges Pompidou hospital.
And he rejected claims he was “experimenting” on the driver.
He said: “My team and I are not doing an experiment, an abominable term not in line with a serious medical view.” Schumacher’s former Ferrari team-mate, Felipe Massa, recently revealed he remains in a “difficult phase”.
Massa said: “My relationship with him has always been very close. We know his situation is not easy. “He is in a difficult phase but we need to respect him and the family. I still visit him occasionally and talk to the family about any progress I see.”