2023-12-19 19:20:00
“What happened to Lucas might have happened to me, to anyone. I will not be silent and everyone must assume their responsibilities“. Damien Arnoux witnessed the death of Lucas for many hours in the emergency room of Hyères hospital.
“A lack of resources? That’s not the problem”
“I was asked why I sent letters regarding what I saw and what is the aim of my approach. The goal ? It’s because I don’t want my loved ones or others to go through what Lucas went through. You are supposed to feel safe in a hospital. We are talking regarding a lack of resources, that is not the problem. I will never go there once more“.
Damien Arnoux is a strong guy, a high-level windsurfing athlete, a fighter. On September 30, 2023, he was at work and suffered from lower back pain which completely immobilized him. Emergency services intervened and transported him to Hyères hospital.
After waiting for a long time, lying on the floor in the waiting room, he is picked up and placed on a stretcher, right in front of Lucas, in a corridor. “It was a Saturday and there were people there. We almost got home at the same time. At first I didn’t care regarding him and then he started to go into PLS (lateral safety position)“.
“The crème fraîche should not have been fresh”
According to Damien, a doctor approaches Lucas who begins to writhe in pain and asks him what he ate. “He talks to her regarding fresh cream, she replies that it should not be fresh without further examination. We don’t take it seriously“.
“I’m not a doctor but I can see that he’s not well at all“His blood pressure is very low and his heart is beating very fast (around 130), according to sources.”He groans and I see him get up from his stretcher, lean once morest the wall and collapse. His eyes were staring into space. Two nurses don’t pay attention“, he describes.
He then calls a nurse. “He will then lift her legs and take her blood pressure. I hear it’s at 5.3. I see the nurse getting worried and going to get the doctor. She comes back to Lucas and asks him: Sir, are you with us? Lucas manages to tell him that he is extremely bad. He is very out of breath.”
“A doctor who doesn’t come back”
The witness hears that if he speaks it is not a real 5.3. “He was on the edge of consciousness. She left once more. “The nurse was conscientious, he took the blood pressure in the other arm and it was very low. The blood sugar level was extremely worrying and very low“. The doctor never returns and the nurse transports the patient to the discharge room.
“It was three meters from me and the doors were open. I attended everything. A second team took over. They did everything to save him. The anesthetist asked that we go get his parents who were waiting and then Lucas had his first cardiac arrest. I heard him say: He’s going to let us go!“.
His mother and father return to the waiting room. “There was a cardiac massage lasting almost 30 minutes. Everything would speed up. I heard that a call was made to Sainte-Musse in Toulon but for a transfer it had to be stabilized. They thought it was peritonitis. I learned that it was sepsis caused by meningococcus.
“A time when they did everything to save him”
Lucas has come to his senses, explains Damien. “The anesthetist said once more: he’s going to let us go“From his stretcher, the Carqueiran resident helplessly watches this race once morest death.”There was an adrenaline problem because a first dose had been used. Emergency rooms would not have been restocked with adrenaline“.
But would the dose of adrenaline have been saving following all this waiting time? Only investigations carried out following the complaint from the young man’s family will be able to tell.
“It is important to understand that there are two phases in its treatment. A time when his case was taken lightly and when doctors and nurses did everything to save him. There were many around him at that time“.
A silence then fell. “Everyone left the room. A nurse set up two chairs near Lucas’ limp body. Two chairs for his father and mother. Can you imagine following your son to the hospital, waiting and being told he has died?“.
Responses from the Ministry of Health and the hospital
Damien left the hospital upset. ” As I replayed the film of what had just happened, I told myself that something had to be done. When someone asked me how my back was, I said it was fine following everything I had seen.“.
He decided to write to the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau who, through his chief of staff, replied that he was contacting the Regional Health Agency to clarify the situation and that the minister would like to be present to present his condolences to the family.
Second answer: that of the hospital. “In summary, I am wished a speedy recovery without mentioning Lucas“.
Contacted, the hospital management “joins in the emotion aroused by this death“and announces”collaborate in the investigation carried out by the competent authority in the context of the complaint filed“.
Meningococci: “If you had caught it, you would already be dead!”
But for Damien Arnoux, things don’t stop there. Lucas was suffering from a meningococcal infection, with serious risks, even fatal. “Cases of contagious diseases must be transmitted to the ARS so that contact persons can be alerted and taken care of.“.
The medical staff and Lucas’ family are contacted but not Damien. “They called me eleven days later. After receiving my mail. The doctor I had told me: If you had caught it, you would already be dead! I have an infant, my wife, my parents, my loved ones and here is the answer for this oversight“.
When he sees and hears that Lucas’ death is being used to talk regarding lack of resources, he is outraged. “The root of the problem is not a lack of resources but a lack of humanity. The second team put in the resources. There is nothing to add. Humans are the problem.“, he repeats.
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