On October 15, a 25-year-old lawyer died of severe meningitis. After several calls to the emergency services, they refused to deploy a team to take care of her. An investigation was opened by the Montpellier public prosecutor’s office.
Friday October 25 the body of a young woman was cremated in Montpellier. Meggy was 25 years old, she was a lawyer and originally from Guadeloupe, she had her whole life ahead of her. She died on October 15 due to lack of treatment by the Hérault emergency services following severe meningitis. Today she rests with her family on Butterfly Island.
On the day of the tragedy, the victim alerted her best friend about her state of health: vomiting, high fever, pain… “When I arrived at her house at 3:11 p.m. I immediately noticed that her condition was critical. I then called Samu within the minutes that followed,” she explains. While she details the situation and her friend’s asthma history to the Samu operator and then to a doctor, they do not seem to take her seriously. “I then handed the phone to my friend so that she could describe her symptoms to the doctor. She was in great pain and then asked for morphine. To which the doctor responded in a very curt tone and contemptuous: “calm down, ma’am, calm down.” I felt that because we were women, our suffering was not being listened to as if we were lying or exaggerating the situation. “ The two friends will obtain as their only prescription “water with sugar” and the address of an SOS Médecin office. A diagnosis well below the symptoms presented by the patient who also did not have means of transport.
At 3:45 p.m., while Meggy said she no longer felt her lower limbs and had severe difficulty breathing, Justine* contacted the firefighters who directed her to a Samu call center. She then explains the more than worrying state in which her friend finds herself, but again the emergency services do not react, and no ambulance is sent to the young woman’s home. “I had the impression that we were disturbing them. I was only advised to give him his Ventolin,” testifies Justine*.
At 4:56 p.m., a third friend of the victim showed up at his home. Together they carry the young woman, then paralyzed, to the latter’s vehicle and leave in the direction of the nearest clinic. “The GPS told us 13 minutes, we tried to reassure her that everything was going to be fine.” testifies one of his friends. On the journey, Meggy’s breathing becomes more and more difficult and the Ventolin no longer seems to produce the slightest effect. In great distress, she repeats “I see everything white, I’m going to die”. Five minutes before arriving at the emergency room, she lost consciousness. One of her friends will try to resuscitate her. In vain.
More than two hours after the first call to Samu, Meggy was finally admitted to the emergency room at 5:30 p.m. “The emergency doctors at the polyclinic tried to resuscitate her and due to her condition, decided to transfer her as an absolute emergency to the Montpellier University Hospital. We quickly learned of her death”laments Justine*.
Today the victim’s friends are waiting for answers. “We have described symptoms which should have alerted the emergency services. What should we tell the emergency services to obtain treatment?”protests one of them. Moreover, if everyone hopes that tragedies like this do not happen again, some of them wish “sanctions” against operators and doctors who did not take their calls seriously. “If she had been taken care of in time, she might still be with us. Justice must be done,” concludes Justine*.
For its part, the victim’s family filed a complaint for “failure to assist a person in danger and manslaughter”, says her friend. The public prosecutor’s office was contacted and a judicial investigation was opened.
For its part, the Montpellier University Hospital, where the death of the young woman was declared, undertook, in a press release, “to provide in complete transparency the details necessary to understand the exact circumstances of the death”, report our colleagues from France 3 Occitanie. Finally, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) launched “an inspection mission on the conditions of care of the young Montpellier woman, on the day of the tragedy”, affirm our colleagues.
