'Unlucky' Schumacher stable, but unimproved

The former racing driver's manager announced on New Year's Day that there has been neither improvement nor deterioration in the 44-year-old's condition since doctors gave an update on Tuesday following a second operation.

With "no signifcant changes" to report, Sabine Kehm explained that doctors did not feel another press conference on Wednesday was necessary.

"Michael's condition has been supervised all the night and has remained stable over the night and also now," Kehm said, cautioning that he is still not out of danger - though Professor Jean-Francois Payen of the hospital in Grenoble said on Tuesday that "the more hours he spends in a stable situation, the better it is."

She also gave further details of the accident itself, and - contrary to some early reports - Schumacher had not been travelling at high speed.

Instead, he had been going relatively slowly along with his son, the two of them skiing as part of a large group - and had stopped to help a friend in difficulties just before the accident.

"Michael and the group had been skiing on normal slopes. In between red and blue slopes there was an [off-piste] area and they went into that," Kehm said.

"He helped a friend who had fallen and went into deep snow, hit a rock and was catapulted into the air and landed head down. It was extreme bad luck, not because he was at speed."

Kehm also added that Schumacher's helmet - which doctors credited with giving the driver a chance of survival - had cracked in two during the accident. Helmets are designed to crack on impact in order to absorb force.

In addition Kehm confirmed the reports that a journalist had tried to sneak into the stricken star's room by dressing as a priest.

The medical condition of seven-times Formula One world champion had been described as slightly better on Tuesday following a second operation during the night to treat head injuries he sustained in a skiing accident.

"The situation is more under control than yesterday but we cannot say he is out of danger," Jean-Francois Payen, head anaesthetician had told the news conference on Tuesday at the CHU hospital in the eastern French city of Grenoble.

"We have won some time but we must continue an hour-by-hour surveillance... It is premature to speculate on his condition," he said, adding that it could still be qualified as "critical" and that "the hours to come are crucial."

Emmanuel Gay, head of the hospital's neurosurgery service, said the operation carried out during the night involved removing a large hematoma - the medical term for a build-up of blood - from the left-hand side of Schumacher's brain.

"It was larger and more accessible (than others) ... We judged we could remove it without taking any risks," Gay said.

He said the operation was designed to reduce, within Schumacher's skull, the pressure on the brain, which suffered injuries including lesions and contusions from Sunday's fall.

The retired motor racing champion, 44, slammed his head on a rock while skiing off-piste on Sunday morning in the French Alpine resort of Meribel, where he has a vacation home.

Doctors said the fact that he was wearing a helmet had enabled him to make it to the hospital alive.

Payen said the medical team in Grenoble had discussed the operation with Schumacher's family. He said the condition of the German motor racing great was still too fragile to consider transferring him to another hospital for the time being.

His wife, Corinna, daughter Gina Maria and son Mick are all now with him in hospital in a bedside vigil.



.