Attention has moved on, with Schumacher becoming only the latest, if one of the best-known, additions to the sobering roll call of those who have fallen into the oblivion — for weeks, months or even years — of long-term comas after sustaining traumatic head injuries while engaging in potentially hazardous recreational sports.

Doctors in Grenoble say that hundreds of injured skiers have arrived at the hospital with concussions and more serious head injuries in recent years. Some of the injured occupy beds near Schumacher’s. A further reminder of the hazards of winter sports comes from the television sets in the wards, which last week were showing events from the Sochi Olympics, where several athletes in the skiing, snowboarding and slopestyle competitions sustained head injuries.

The outlook for Schumacher, 45, has been obscured by the decision of his doctors and his family not to give regular updates on his progress. But what is known seems increasingly dispiriting, at least for his prospects of achieving a complete mental and physical recovery, or even of escaping long-term impairment.

His injuries prompted two operations in his first 36 hours at the hospital to remove blood clots from his brain, and a statement by his doctors after the second operation said scans had revealed multiple clots in deeper areas of the brain that were not accessible to surgery. Those deep clots, medical experts say, pose the most serious threat to Schumacher’s recovery, and perhaps to his survival.