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THERE were 1200 admissions into the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble in 2013, most of the patients suffering serious ski or other alpine sports injuries.
Rescue helicopters thud almost constantly overhead, particularly in winter, running a sort of relay of medical evacs from all over the slopes of the French Alps to the eastern France hospital.
"They are all very, very important as each other, no one patient more important than the other," an exasperated hospital official insisted yesterday as she fielded calls from all over the world.
SCHUMACHER SENT FLYING INTO THREE OTHER ROCKS IN SKIING ACCIDENT
You would expect that attitude in a country that invented the word egalitarian, but clearly during the week there was one patient whose presence was seen as a little more important than the others, not least by more than 100 media personnel camped outside the hospital's emergency doors waiting for word on his condition.
Corinna Schumacher, the wife of former German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher arrives at Grenoble University Hospital Centre. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
Michael Schumacher, 45-year-old father of two, ski enthusiast, adrenalin junkie and the man considered the greatest driver ever strapped into a Formula One machine.
His was an unfortunate, most common of ski accidents but there has been nothing ordinary about the feats of the German who for more than two decades dominated the F1 motorsport with a record 91 wins and seven world championships.
The fact he could be felled by an innocuous turn on a ski slope after a career of high-speed 350km/hr dangers is not lost on anyone.
FAMILY HAILS MICHAEL SCHUMACHER A FIGHTER
But more surprising perhaps has been that his latest death defying injury should attract so much response, from world leaders to sport stars to ordinary people on the street, all offering their desires and prayers for his recovery.
That recovery still remains unknown, as are the events that saw him become just another of CHU Grenoble's 1200 patients.
Michael Schumacher's family has described the Formula One champion as a 'fighter' in a message.
Schumacher is considered to be the first sports star to have become a billionaire. He had humble beginnings with his bricklayer dad building his first competitive go-kart from scrap. As the young Schumacher began winning races and age titles beyond his own age, his father Rolf had to find a second job to help buy him new karts before he was discovered by corporate sponsors.
SCHU'S BIGGEST F1 RIVALRIES
In 1989 he moved up to Formula Three, earning a call-up to the Mercedes junior team before winning the prestigious Macau F3 Grand Prix in 1990.
His F1 debut came with the Jordan team, a Mercedes cheque placing their young charge Eddie Jordan's cash-strapped squad. At the Belgian Grand Prix in 1991 he equalled his team's best grid position for the season at seventh but his race debut was brief.
Schumacher (2L) with Peter Sauber (L) and fellow Mercedes junior drivers Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Pic: Sauber F1 Source: Supplied
Inexperienced at standing starts, Schumacher burnt out the car's clutch on the starting grid. His race lasted 600 metres.
He switched teams to Benetton by the next race, after a contract mess up, and in 1992 finished third in the drivers' championship. He won his first drivers' championship in 1994, the season marred by the death of driving great Ayrton Senna in a high-speed crash at the San Marino Grand Prix that Schumacher saw first hand as he was driving in second place at the time behind the race leader Senna. Senna was Schumacher's idol as much as rival and his death affected the German although not to the point of him driving any safer. He was a known risk taker, at times considered reckless, and he never changed his style even when he was disqualified from the 1997 season after a deliberate manoeuvre to crash an opponent who stood to win the drivers' championship. It was the second time he had done something like that and he received years of bad press particularly in Britain.
Formula One driver Michael Schumacher skiing in the northern Italian resort of Madonna di Campiglio. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
In 1996, he took on the challenge of helping return the once-great Ferrari team to the top, and between 2000 and 2004 he won more races and championships than any other driver in the history of the sport. When he retired from the sport for the first time in 2006, aged 37, he was being hailed as the greatest driver of all time, even by the British and Italian press which never really took to the German and his cold, almost clinical, persona. That didn't change when he made an unsuccessful comeback to racing in 2010. When he retired again in 2012 he decided to concentrate on skiing as a past time.
He lives in a $70million mansion by Lake Geneva in Switzerland with his wife Corinna, 16-year-old daughter Gina Maria, 14-year-old son Mick and a huge car collection. The family own a large chalet in the exclusive ski village of Meribel in the Tarentaise Valley in the French Alps.
The family move to the chalet each Christmas and were hoping to celebrate the New Year and Schumacher's 45th birthday, last Friday, but on the previous Sunday a ski trip with his son and some friends went wrong.
Paying tribute with a sand sculpture of German Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher at Puri beach, as far as India. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
Schumacher's manager Sabine Kehm, who has spent the past week at Grenoble hospital alongside Schumacher's family, described how the group was skiing down a run when one of them fell. Schumacher stopped and helped them up and had pushed off again before skiing into an off-piste straight with rocky outcrops protruding between the two runs. On one side was the difficult Maudit red run, ungroomed and blighted with moguls on the other the easier La Biche blue run which is steep and races off toward the village. For whatever reason, and the French Gendarmerie based in nearby Bourg St Maurice is investigating, Schumacher elected to head straight for the off-piste basin between the two, littered with rocks and covered with only powder snow, albeit deep, since there had not been any decent snow falls in the area for weeks. Kehm, who visited the site, wont go into the exact details but confirmed Schumacher clipped a rock and his skis catapulted him head first into a boulder.
Fans hold a Ferrari flag in front of the Grenoble University Hospital Centre in the French Alps, where retired seven-time German Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher remains. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
He was wearing a helmet but such was the impact, it split and when those around him called for help blood was spilling from his head.
Two ski patrollers from Meribel were on the scene almost immediately after they received a call since they were attending to another unrelated issue nearby. They immediately called for a helicopter evac. He was initially taken to the nearby town of Moutiers. The resort later issued a statement saying the retired motor ace was fine but was being moved to Grenoble for tests. In reality, he was in an agitated state, a neurological sign something was not right, before he fell unconscious. The prognosis was not good from the start. A scan showed widespread intercranial haematoma (internal bleeding), cerebral contusions (brain tissue bruising) and oedema (fluid build up). He was put into an induced coma, his body kept at near hypothermic levels of 35 degrees. He remains in critical conditions but doctors have said over the past few days he was showing "slight signs" of recovery. Whether there is any brain damage is not something doctors want to speculate about and a number of times they have made the point that no-one is prepared to "predict the future".
Neurosurgeon Professor Stephan Chabardes, Professor Jean-Francois Payen, Assistant Director Marc Penaud, Professor Emmanuel Gay and Professor and Michael Schumacher's friend Gerard Saillant give a press conference about Michael Schumacher's health condition. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
Press, led by a huge German contingent, descended on Grenoble from Sunday night. By the next day with reports of the severity of his injuries other media arrived. Yesterday there were still 17 live TV satellite trucks broadcasting around the clock to their various audiences. Such was the size, police were forced to move the pack to a designated carpark area of the hospital where officials also set aside an auditorium for working press. Former greats of the sport began Tweeting their hopes for his recovery and two days later German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she too was shocked by his accident and joined "millions of Germans" hoping for a full recovery. German fans, many wearing Ferrari colours, then began arriving at the hospital as well as many French locals, bizarrely photographing each other outside the hospital and or with the media pack.
The first of a planned 20 buses, organised by the Italian carmaker and collecting fans from across Italy, began arriving in Grenoble. Some carried flags with well wishes, most wore red. Ferrari, which has 130 clubs across Europe and told fans to wear red and its insignia in honour of their most famous former driver, came in for some criticism with some branding the support as a blatant promotion. President of the Roma-Colesseo Ferrari Club said he did not want to be associated with an event linked to a man's suffering.
"It's very delicate and if I was among those who are close to Michael, such an initiative would not have pleased me," he said. The retired F1 driver's fan club in his boyhood town of Kerpen also said any celebration of the birthday would be in bad taste.
Artwork speculating on the location at the Meribel ski resort France, where Michael Schumacher may have fallen and sustained head injuries. Source: Supplied
Schumacher is being treated by the two top doctors at the hospital, including head of the neurosurgery department Emmanuel Gay and brain surgeon Stephan Chabardes, as well as two other renowned doctors who are also close personal friends of Schumacher's family Dr Johann Peil and Paris-based Prof Gerard Saillant.
Schumacher is likely to have to undergo further surgery. He is still in the intensive care unit and will not be moved for some days if not weeks.
Father Rolf Schumacher arrives at the Grenoble University Hospital Centre where former German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher is being treated for a severe head injury following a skiing accident. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
While the media never really warmed to him as a personality during his long career there were none who could refute his abilities and for that he was highly regarded during his years of domination of the sport. The global reaction on social media when it was revealed he was fighting for his life was also testament to his legion of fans and admirers still supporting him seven years after his successful career. His mark on the sport and fans was clearly indomitable.
Some people court publicity others are famous by birthright default but Schumacher is much loved around the world for his unmatched talent and deservedly has been getting huge attention now. While his future remains unknown his past will forever be remembered globally and that's what makes him different to the 1199 other patients who have passed through the CHU doors.
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