Doctors of formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher are hoping to see eye movements as they enter the third week of their "waking up" process, according to reports.
The 45-year-old seven-time world champion has been in an induced coma since smashing his head against a hidden rock during a low-speed ski-run in the French Alps after the holidays.
His doctors have operated on him to remove blood clots from his brain but left some that were deeply embedded. According to the Mirror, surgeons at the University of Grenoble Hospital, who have been trying to bring him out of his coma by slowly lowering the amount of drugs sedating him, are now anticipating eye movements and a sense that he is aware of his surroundings.
Schumacher's agent, Sabine Kehm, said in an email on Friday that "Michael is still in the wake-up phase and this phase can be long."
Dr. Tipu Aziz, a professor of neurosurgery at Oxford University who is is not directly involved in providing Schumacher with medical care, said: "It does not bode well. The fact that he hasn't woken up implies that the injury has been extremely severe and that a full recovery is improbable.
Aziz says that doctors typically try every few days to bring someone out of a coma.
"If you do not start getting any positive signs, that becomes very worrisome." Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and a trustee for Headway, a British brain injury charity, says that MRI scans can help show any secondary deterioration in the brain structure.
He also suggested that other parts of Schumacher's brain that weren't directly affected by the accident might now be starting to show worrying signs that may not have been visible before.
