Formula One champion Michael Schumacher was transferred from a French hospital to a facility in Switzerland on Monday after emerging from a coma following his devastating ski accident in December.
In a surprise announcement, the retired German racing star’s spokeswoman Sabine Kehm said he had left hospital in the French Alpine city of Grenoble, where he had been treated since December 29 when he slammed his head on a rock while skiing with his son and friends.
The 45-year-old was transferred to a hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne where he will be undergoing further treatment, hospital spokesman Darcy Christen told AFP.
Stressing the hospital’s commitment to privacy, Christen said Schumacher’s family was with him “in a space created especially to ensure their intimacy and to ensure the best possible care.”
Schumacher, his wife Corinna and two children live in Switzerland in the small town of Gland. While news of his accident in the French skiing resort of Meribel attracted throngs of global media to the Grenoble hospital, his departure Monday morning was very discreet and no press conference was scheduled to further brief the media.
In a statement, the seven-time world champion’s spokeswoman Kehm said his family wanted to “thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months.”
“For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye,” she said.
