Ex F1 Doctor: Polemic in Schumacher treatment . Fans can say goodbye

Two days ago, the ex Formula 1 doctor (2005/12), the  american Gary Hartstein, wrote on his blog that Michales Schumacher’s fans should use this long time in hospital to start saying goodbye to him. He added a partial criticism to the media strategy used by the family , stating that not enough informative bulletins foments a world of gossip and speculations. The blog is extremely long and detailed.

Since then, Hartstein has been quoted, misquoted and criticised by hundreds of people through social media. This afternoon. He added, again a long, explanation to his blog. Here are some of his clarifications:

The driver, hospital and place of the accident

I am very clearly criticising a system that allows head injured patients to be brought to non-neurosurgical centers, in the absence of other clear reasons to do so.

4) The failure to adequately control an agitated patient prior to flight, as well as the delays in adequate control of the airway likely indicate insufficient training, insufficiently robust protocols, and perhaps insufficient experience under difficult circumstances (again, a mega-star patient with a difficult, demanding and perhaps even frankly hostile entourage). I am very clearly criticising a system that allows this to happen.

5) It is impossible to quantify the impact of the above on outcome in Michael’s case. Obviously. It is also obvious that someone whose neurosurgeon, the day after the trauma, describes his condition as “hematomas left, right and centre” is likely not to do particularly well. This should be obvious, at least to the “journalists” who disingenuously (at best!) implied that I said that Michael’s current situation is because of these aspects of his initial care. The delay in admission to a neurosurgeon, as well as deferred airway control, cannot have been good for a severely injured brain. Especially in a situation where the intracranial pressure has risen so high that parts of the brain are literally being squeezed out of the cranial vault. That said, in terms of prognosis, this likely pales in significance compared to the 2000-and-some-odd joules of impact energy against that goddamned rock.

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