Doctors treating the retired Formula One racing champion, Michael Schumacher, said today that they cannot guarantee his recovery from his skiing accident in the French Alps on Sunday.
Journalists on the scene were told that Michael Schumacher was still in critical condition and was placed on an artificially-induced coma after brain surgery.
Chief Anesthetist Jean-François Payen told journalists. "He's in a critical situation. This is considered to be extremely serious,"
"We can say that his condition is life-threatening," Dr Payen, said. "For the moment, we can make no prediction on the future of Michael Schumacher."
Neurosurgeon Stephan Chabardes, said that a brain scan had revealed internal bleeding, and injuries including contusions and lesions. He said they had operated a first time to treat the internal bleeding.
The doctors denied reports that they had performed a second operation overnight. They said that they were waiting to see how Schumacher responds before deciding on the next phase of treatment.
The extent of his head injuries is severe despite the fact that he was wearing a helmet suggested that Schumacher was travelling very fast at the time of the accident on Sunday morning, Payan said.
Dr Payen said that Schumacher had suffered a "serious skull trauma" and that "hemorrhaging lesions" had been discovered on his brain. His body was being kept at the low temperature of 34 to 35 centigrade according to the usual procedure with brain injuries. The aim was to reduce the pressure within the skull.
"His helmet protected him partially," Payen said. "Anyone who had had this accident without a helmet would not have survived this long."
"We can make no prediction on the future of Michael Schumacher," he added.
A spokesman for the hospital said: "Michael Schumacher was the victim of very serious trauma. The neurosurgical treatment he received brought us quite a lot of information. We had to operate urgently to release some pressure in his head. Unfortunately, he has some lesions within his brain. Everything that needed to be done has been done at the moment we can't really say when he will recover, we cannot answer this yet."
Schumacher retired from Formula One for the second time last year, and remains the most successful man to ever grace the sport. His seven world championship wins - two with Benetton and five with Ferrari - saw him overtake Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five successes in 2002.
