A doctor who treated Michael Schumacher for nearly six months after his brain injury in a skiing accident says the F1 champion has made “some progress,” the BBC reports.
But Jean-Francois Payen, a doctor at the French hospital in Grenoble where he was treated, warned that any recovery would take time.
The typical convalescence period was one to three years, he suggested.
On Thursday, the doctor gave interviews to French radio station RTL and Le Parisien newspaper.
“I have noted some progress but I would say we should give him time,” he said.
Asked about the chances of Schumacher making a recovery, he only referred to a time frame for patients with similar brain injuries.
“It’s like for other patients, we are on a timescale which goes from one year to three years and we need to be patient,” he said.
Schumacher, 45, was skiing in the French Alps last December when he fell and hit his head on a rock.
The seven-time world champion from Germany was placed in a medically induced coma to help reduce swelling in his brain as he underwent treatment in Grenoble and then in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He has now been taken out of the coma and is being looked after at his home in Gland, Switzerland, where Prof Payen still visits him to track his progress.
