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On September 10 and 11, global media was flooded with sensational publications on the health of legendary Formula One driver Michael Schumacher. Citing the publication of the French newspaper Le Parisien, almost all news outlets wrote that the German has come out of a six-year coma and his consciousness has been regained. The news of the “Red Baron” having come out of a coma quickly found its way to the pages of Armenian news outlets. In particular, news.am, armenpress.am, armeniasputnik.am, a1plus.am, tert.am, 1in.am, yerkir.am and other news outlets wrote about this.
The Fact Investigation Platform decided to follow the tracks of those publications and see if there has been a drastic change in the Formula One seven-time champion’s health, and if he went out of a coma at one of the Paris hospitals where he was last seen by Le Parisien reporters.
Source of information
The news of Michael Schumacher’s coming out of a coma came after the he was taken to the Cardiology Department of the George Pompidou Hospital in Paris on September 9. Then it was revealed that the racer had to undergo a surgery to insert stem cells into the heart tissue.
The accompanying doctor declined to comment on questions related to Schumacher’s health, citing medical confidentiality. However, the reporters managed to talk to one of the nurses.
“Yes he is in my service. And I can assure you that he is conscious.”
It was the nurse’s words that sparked a boom in the media, while the woman did not say that the legendary racer came to mind at that time, but merely confirmed the information that had been reported for several years.
It is noteworthy that, unlike these news sites, the original website headlined its publication simply as: “Schumacher hospitalized in Paris: Healing is in question.” And the emphasis is not so much on the nurse’s words, but on the type of surgery expected, its effectiveness and the surgeon’s previous successes.
Relevance of the topic
It is noteworthy that the information of Schumacher coming out of a coma was known since 2014. In particular, BBC published an article entitled “F1 legend Michael Schumacher out of coma”, in which Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm’s following words were cited, “Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore.”
And in December 2018, former Ferrari boss Jean Todd told how he watched the Brazilian Grand Prix with Michael on television. This year Todd also watched the German Grand Prix with the racer.
On December 23, 2013, Michael Schumacher suffered a right brain injury while skiing in the French Alps and had been in a coma for a long time.
Thus, we can say that the news of Formula One legend coming out of a coma is not sensational at all, because Schumacher had come out of a coma years ago.
Astghik Keshishyan
