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Schumie 'awake for hospital transfer'

GENEVA, Switzerland - Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher was conscious and had his eyes open during his top-secret transfer from a French hospital to one near his home in Switzerland.

That, at least, is what Swiss newspaper Blick has reported.

Schumacher was moved on Monday after apparently emerging from a coma induced after a serious skiing fall in December 2013. The paper said he had his eyes open for most of the journey by private ambulance, one conducted, it was said, like a Secret Service operation.

NO WORDS, JUST NODS

Schumacher did not speak, the paper claimed, but communicated by nodding his head during the 200km journey.

The ambulance company was not told who its passenger would be and staff had to give up their mobile phones after they came into contact with him. The paper said Schumacher had lost a lot of weight during his 170 days in hospital in the French city of Grenoble.

It tracked down the Swiss ambulance company, whose head Mathias Volken confirmed its involvement, but refused to give further details.

The seven-times F1 champion's spokeswoman Sabine Kehm on Monday thanked the doctors in Grenoble and asked for "understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye".

The hospital in which he is now a patient is said to be one of Switzerland's best and has renowned neurology experts.

It is in the city of Lausanne, near where Schumacher's wife Corinna and two children live.
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