F1 legend Schumi to get stem cell boost
Stricken champ awaits op
FORMULA 1 legend Michael Schumacher is due to have a stem cell operation within days in a bid to boost his health.
The new procedure will come more than six years after the motor racing great – who won a record seven world titles – was critically injured in a skiing accident.
Dr Philippe Menasche, a French professor and cardiologist who has operated on Schumacher before, will perform the new procedure.
One source claimed the op could take place “in the next few days” and was aiming at trying to “regenerate his nervous system”.
Schumacher, 51, is having damaged cells replaced with healthy ones that have been harvested from bone marrow or blood.
He was in a coma for six months after the head injury suffered while skiing off-piste in the Alpine resort of Meribel.
Schumacher, winner of a record 91 grands prix, fell and hit his head on December 29, 2013, while skiing with his son Mick.
He suffered a brain injury and was airlifted to hospital in Grenoble, where he was placed in a medically induced coma.
After 254 days, he returned to his home in Switzerland, where he has remained since, apart from occasional trips for treatment in hospital.
Dr Menasche, who pioneered a technique of grafting stem cells on to a damaged heart, operated on Schumacher last September.
Earlier this year, he confirmed that Schumacher received heart and vascular surgery at Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris.
He said: “I do not perform miracles. My team and I are not doing an experiment, an abominable term that is not in line with a serious medical view.”