Lucky charm placed at Michael Schumacher's bedside

 

*For better, for worse

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A LUCKY amulet that Michael Schumacher took with him on every race has been placed beside his hospital bed by his wife Corinna, who is keeping a constant vigil.
Mrs Schumacher has also surrounded her dangerously ill husband with candles and keepsakes from their children as she prays for his recovery.
Photographs also emerged of the dramatic moment when he was flown from a ski run in the French Alps by a rescue helicopter.
Among the lucky charms his 44-year-old wife has placed by his bed at Grenoble University Hospital is the ceramic amulet she gave him after they wed in 1995, inscribed with the initials of family members.
Schumacher is said to have refused to race without it.
Other sentimental tokens arranged around the bed where he lies in a coma include a hairbrush belonging to 16-year-old daughter Gina-Marie and a golden cross from his son Mick, 14.
Of the cross, which stands by his headboard, Mrs Schumacher has said: "Mick discovered it when he was on holiday with his grandma. It has even been blessed."
Surgeons said yesterday Mrs Schumacher and the children were in a "state of shock". Schumacher's younger brother, Ralf, who was also a Formula One driver, and father Rolf visited the hospital on Wednesday.
Schumacher, who turns 45 on Friday, was skiing with Mick on Sunday morning when he hit his head on a rock with sufficient force to crack his helmet in two.
He remains in an artificially induced coma at the hospital with Mrs Schumacher and their children at his bedside.
The hospital's chief anaesthetist, Professor Jean-Francois Payen, said medical literature put the likelihood of recovery from his injuries at between 40-45 per cent, but added: "I don't work with statistics, I work with patients."
Surgeons said a second operation to remove a blood clot and relieve the pressure on his brain went well. A scan on the morning after the operation showed a slight improvement.