Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher is out of coma and has been moved out of Grenoble Hospital, his spokeswoman said Monday.
The 45-year-old former F1 champion was in an induced coma after a traumatic head injury following a skiing accident in the French Alps resort of Meribel, December 27, 2013. "Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore," Schumi's manager, Sabine Kehm, said in a statement. "For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye."
According to the Metro, the seven times F1 champion communicated with his wife and children, and was considered stable enough to no longer need the help of specialists in Grenoble.
In April doctors attending to Schumacher said he was "showing small signs of progress." The Grenoble Hospital had said that the clinical state of Schumacher was stable and he was under permanent care and treatment.
The doctors began the process of pulling Schumi out of the induced coma after a month of his accident.
Earlier this year, health experts said that Schumacher might not recover completely. Certain German news organizations had reported that he could remain in coma forever.
Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, told BBC in an earlier report that it was "virtually impossible" that Schumacher will ever recover. "I think that it will have to be considered a triumph of human physical resiliency, and of modern neurointensive care, if Michael is able to walk, feed himself, dress himself, and if he retains significant elements of his previous personality," he said. Sheiff was involved with the team of doctors treating Schumacher.
