Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher is due to undergo a stem cell operation which could help regenerate his nervous system.
According to reports, the Ferrari icon – a seven-time F1 world champion – will be treated by noted medical pioneer Dr Philippe Menasche, who has worked on the technique of grafting stem cells onto a damaged heart.
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The ‘part experimental’ surgery is to deal with the atrophying of Schumacher’s muscles, caused by him being bed-ridden for so long.
Schumacher, 51, suffered a serious head injury in December 2013 when he fell and hit his head while skiing off-piste in the Alps.
He was in a coma for six months and has remained out of the public eye for the almost seven years since his accident.
Schumacher reportedly began various stem cell operations last year.
“Our sources say that Michael Schumacher is receiving stem cell perfusions that … produce a systemic anti-inflammatory effect,” read a report in Le Parisien.
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“That is to say they reach the whole body and you could imagine that they reach Michael Schumacher’s brain.
“It’s quite mysterious. Officially [Professor Menasché] works only on the heart.
“He is carrying out experiments with [secretome] that is made by a laboratory from new stem cells and injected into veins, until now only on animals.”
Felipe Massa, Schumacher’s former Ferrari teammate, recently visited the German.
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Speaking to Fox Brazil, Massa said: “I know how he is, I have information. My relationship with him has always been very close.
“It is less close with his wife Corinna because she did not go to many races. But I think the main thing about all this is that we know that his situation is not easy. He is in a difficult phase but we need to respect him and the family.
“They do not like to divulge any information, so who am I to do that? I dream and pray every day that he gets better and that he can appear at a circuit again, especially now that his son is racing.
“So I pray that it may happen one day.”
Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport
