“I’m in so much pain. And I feel so weak. My rib cage is so painful. They don’t know when there will be a doctor available. I don’t know what to do.” This is one of the last messages that Lucas Mannima, a 25-year-old hydraulic technician, will send to his mother from the emergency room of Hyères hospital on September 30. A few later, he died of “septic shock”. The fault of “a series of anomalies” et “inconsistencies”, as raised by several caregivers directly concerned? This is what his family is denouncing today, who have filed a complaint for “involuntary manslaughter” once morest the Hyérois hospital center and its director, as well as once morest X.
This procedure, revealed by Mediapartwas also detailed to us by Me Thomas Callen, the lawyer of Corinne Godefroy, Lucas’ mother, who had access to the entire medical care file, including “original results sent anonymously”. This evokes a “revolting affair”: “Lucas did not die because bad luck got involved. From the nurses who looked down to the doctor who did not take the situation seriously, everyone contributed, through their inaction, and their disinterest, to take away any chance of survival for Lucas (…) by not diagnosing a meningococcal infection.”
Arrived at the hospital, “blue lips”
For Lucas, health problems began the day before his hospitalization with vomiting and stomach aches, which led him to call a doctor on the 15th, to whom he confided that he had not “never had that in (his) life”. But everything changed once at Hyères hospital, this Saturday, September 30. He arrives there at 3:51 p.m. “blue lips”before spending hours moaning in a corridor next to another patient, the first witness to the lack of attention paid to Lucas.
The firefighters, who took care of his transfer, however indicate that this young patient suffers from a “abdominal pain” and of “vomiting”. As well as “weakness” and a “rib pain”two elements which are not found in the admission file. “They must have thought it was just gastro and put it aside…”, imagines his mother. The first malfunction, in a long list.
A late electrocardiogram, the results of which are considered abnormal, does not accelerate treatment. No more than his complaints to the staff, to whom he assured he had “terribly bad”. “While every minute counted in his case”deplores Corinne Godefroy, who lived “the horror”, from the hospital parking lot, without being able to see her son alive once more. “When he was seen by a doctor following four hours, we said to ourselves: Phew, that’s itshe emphasizes. But in fact, the doctor saw him for two minutes. And once more, he was asked if he smoked weed because he had dreadlocks, without having the results of the blood test, which turned out to be dramatic”.
Not to have died for nothing
The followingmath of this tragic evening? Discomfort, desperate search for adrenaline, cardiac arrests and massages, coma, intubation… At 2 a.m., Lucas died. “We were left for four hours in front of his corpseremembers Corinne Godefroy. You realize? He died alone, suffering.” Nor the condolences of the management of the Hyères hospital, accused of being “responsible for what happened”nor the two meetings with the users’ commission and the explanations of “lack of means” and of “too much people” have appeased this family, who will spend their first Christmas without Lucas.
“Let justice be done to him”, adds his mother. She is also awaiting a reaction from the Minister of Health, following sending a letter last Wednesday: “If my son’s death might be of any use. So that it never happens once more…” Contacted, the management of Hyères hospital “associates himself with the emotion aroused by this death” and announces its intention to “cooperate fully with the investigation carried out by the competent authority, in the context of the complaint filed”. While other testimonies might be added to the file.
