14 DAY TRIAL // 29 December 2013 was a sad day for speed racing fans, as Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher sustained a severe accident while skiing in an unauthorized area in the French Alps, which resulted in a life-threatening concussion to the head after hitting a rock.
After months of care in the hospital, the driver’s son revealed that Schumacher was “waking up very slowly" from a medically induced coma after suffering severe brain injuries. The former Formula 1 star is currently treated in his Switzerland home.
Doctors credited Schumacher’s helmet for saving his life, explaining the racing champion would have most likely died without one. But it appears, the helmet did not cause the severe brain injuries.
GoPro camera is said to be the blame for Schumacher's brain lesions
A French journalist in contact with Schumacher’s family revealed their exact cause, it was the GoPro camera mounted on top of the helmet, reports autoevolution.
According to the information, the problem was not the hit per se, but the GoPro camera mounted on top of the helmet, which ended up injuring his brain.
At this point, Schumacher is still unable to walk or talk and doctors are reluctant to make predictions to the extent of his recovery, meaning that it’s unknown whether the former star might make a partial recovery or not.
No fewer than 15 medical professionals are attending to the health of the former F1 star. Doctors from the Lausanne clinic where he was staying sent him home, because they believed being around his family and familiar surroundings might speed up the recovery process.
The ENSA is conducting tests to see if the helmet structure was weakened
Investigators have been looking into finding out whether the helmet was to blame for the injuries right after the accident happened.
Experts at the ENSA (Ski and Climbing Academy located in the French ski resort of Chamonix) have conducted a series of tests to see whether the presence of an extra solid object placed between a helmet colliding with a rock could have any effects such as weakening the structure.
The results revealed the helmet completely broke. ENSA then proceeded to analyze a piece of the material which turned out to be OK.
So the big question is why the helmet exploded during impact, and the most likely answer is that the presence of the GoPro camera somehow weakened the structure.
It will be interesting to see how GoPro addresses these findings which show the camera has something to do with the helmet not being able to work as intended.
