Report of Schumacher Contracting Pneumonia “speculation” - Says Manager

Posted: 12:46 pm, February 12, 2014 by MunichNOW News

Schumacher received a head injury sustained in a skiing accident at a French Alps resort 29 December 2013. EPA/BENVENUTI

Berlin (MunichNOW News/dpa) - A German tabloid’s report that Formula One legend Michael Schumacher had contracted pneumonia was “speculation,” his manager Sabine Kehm told dpa on Wednesday.

Sabine Rehm the agent former Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher has confirmed reports that doctors have started the process of bringing the driver out of his medically induced coma. Schumacher received a head injury sustained in a skiing accident at a French Alps resort 29 December 2013. EPA/GIORGIO BENVENUTI

The daily Bild reported that Schumacher was on strong antibiotics to treat a severe lung infection that he had contracted last week.

This came as doctors have been slowly attempting to bring him out of the coma that was induced following a skiing accident on December 29 in the French resort of Meribel in which he suffered serious head injuries.

Kehm said she would not comment on speculation, and that as is always the case reports about Schumacher’s health - which were not from either the physicians or his management - must be regarded as speculative.

Last month, Kehm had said that Schumacher’s sedation was being reduced to start the waking up process from the induced coma. But she said that the “waking up process … may take a long time.”

Schumacher was skiing with his 14-year-old son, Mick, when his skis hit a rock, causing him to lose balance and fall headlong, striking another rock.

He was taken to a hospital in Grenoble, and has been in a medically induced coma ever since. The 45-year-old has been operated on twice.

Schumacher won a record seven F1 world titles and retired from the sport for a second time in 2012.