Michael Schumacher: Former Formula One driver showing 'slight improvement' after second operation since skiing accident

Seven-time world champion has had a second operation overnight that has evacuated the haematoma in his brain

Michael Schumacher before his retirement from Formula One (GETTY IMAGES)

French doctors performed a successful second operation to reduce bruising in the brain of Michael Schumacher late last night, improving the condition of the former Formula One champion but leaving his hopes of recovery "fragile", it was announced today.

Doctors at the Grenoble University Hospital said that a "brief improvement" in the German driver's condition had given them a "window of medical opportunity" to carry out a two hour operation to remove a "haematoma" or serious bruise from within Mr Schumacher's brain.

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"A scan this morning shows that this operation was performed with success and that his condition is now under better control," said Dr. Jean-Francois Payen, the anaesthetist in charge of the hospital intensive care unit.

Both he and the consultant neurosurgeon Emmanuel Gay told a press conference that it was too early to predict whether Schumacher, 44, would recover from his serious skiing accident on Sunday. They said that there were other areas of bruising within the ex-driving champion's brain. They were smaller than the haematoma removed late last night but more inaccessible.

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Jacqueline Hubert, director general of the Grenoble University Hospital, confirmed that Schumacher remains in an induced coma, but the second operation was a success and that overnight he "progressively got better".

"Late in the evening (Monday) a new brain scan was carried out and there was a slight improvement," Jacqueline Hubert, the director general of the hospital, said.

"The scan allowed us to suggest we could have a new intervention (on the brain) and that took place overnight. A new scan was carried out this morning and this shows slight improvement."

Dr Payen added: "The situation is more under control than yesterday but we cannot say that he is out of danger.

"We have won some time but we must continue an hour-by-hour surveillance," he said.

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One of the five doctors in attendance elaborated on the treatment of Schumacher.

"We had a transitory improvement of inter-cranial pressure. Michael Schumacher's inter-cranial pressure improved and we were able to carry out the scan without taking a risk," one of the five doctors said.

"That scan showed a few signs that were relatively stable. There were no signs that implied there was a worsening.

"Talking to my colleagues, we felt at the moment that it was possible, taking into consideration his state had slightly improved, that we carried out a surgical intervention that we had not thought possible.

"It allowed us to treat in a more radical fashion to relieve inter-cranial pressure.

"This was carried out in the night. This allowed us to do a new scan and see new images and see the haematoma has been evacuated in a good fashion.

"We have seen a few signs to show the situation is better controlled than it was yesterday."

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A decision was made last night to offer Schumacher's family the option of carrying out a second operation after they saw an opportunity to further reduce the swelling on his brain, which was given the go-ahead by his relations who remain constantly at his bedside.

The operation lasted around two hours, and further scans of his brain this morning showed a "slight improvement" and that Schumacher was "showing signs that he is relatively stable".

The doctors also stressed the importance that they cannot answer any questions regarding the future, with Schumacher's condition meaning that his chances of survival remain unknown at this current stage. He remains under continual surveyance, and it was due to an unexpected sign if improvement which allowed the second operation to go ahead.

The initial lesions identified on Schumacher's brain have not worsened, although doctors did confirm that more were discovered and there are still "many haematomas in the brain".

"There are no current plans to remove the remaining haematomas," they added.

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Doctors wanted to stress that there were other patients in similar conditions to Schumacher, and that they must and will treat each of them exactly the same, regardless of the publicity regarding the former F1 driver.

"Other patients are in the same situation, but they are treated with exactly the same treatment and exactly the same care as Michael Schumacher. Our job is not to treat one or two people.

"On Sunday we observed that he hit his head extremely hard judging from his injuries. It was a very violent hit to the head."

Earlier it emerged that Schumacher's skiing helmet had split into two parts in the accident which left him with life-threatening head injuries on Sunday. Sources in a gendarmerie investigation of the accident in Meribel in the French Alps told the French news agency, AFP, that the former Formula One world champion's helmet was found in two parts.

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Medical experts said that the next 48 hours would decide whether the retired German racing driver would survive or recover partially or completely. Professor Denis Safran of the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris said that it was notoriously difficult to predict the consequences of the kind of injuries, including internal brain lesions, suffered by Mr Schumacher.

"He could die. He could have serious lasting effects such as paralysis or loss of understanding or he could recover completely," the professor said.

On Monday doctors treating Mr Schumacher at the Grenoble university hospital said they "could not yet predict" his future. They said that he had been placed in a medically induced coma to relieve pressure on his brain, which suffered bruising and bleeding when the seven-time world champion fell and struck a rock with the right hand side of his head on Sunday morning.

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Medical staff have lowered his body temperature to between 34 and 35 degrees Celsius (93.2 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit) to allow the brain to rest and reduce dangerous swelling and inflammation.

Mr Schumacher's wife, Corinna, daughter Gina Maria and son Mick, who was skiing with his father when the accident happened, remained at his bedside.

"The family is not doing very well, obviously. They are shocked," his manager, Sabine Kehm, told reporters.

The accident happened off-piste in a section of deep snow between two broad and relatively easy official slopes

"He was in the deep snow. But it was not an off-piste track," Ms Kehm said, suggesting Schumacher had not taken undue risks. "They were skiing on pistes, but in the moment that it (the accident) happened, it was not on the piste."

The French state prosecutor in Albertville has opened an investigation   to try to discover the  cause of the accident.