Montpellier: young woman dies in hospital after hours of waiting

On October 15, in Montpellier, Meggy, a 25-year-old woman of Guadeloupean origin, contracted acute meningitis after hours of waiting for treatment by the SAMU. In a an interview given to TF1, Meggy’s friend, who was by her side and called the SAMU, confirms : evening, the young woman experiences unusual symptoms. Concerned about her health, her best friend decides to contact the SAMU: while she reports a high fever and vomiting, the regulator suggests giving her water with sugar . She says: “In his voice, he seemed to be worried. » As the victim’s condition worsens over the hours, her best friend calls the emergency services and tells them that Meggy can no longer feel her limbs, and she is asked to give her a hot shower. Eventually, her best friend managed to get her to the hospital but unfortunately it was too late: desperate and in cardiac-respiratory distress, Meggy died a few hours later after receiving a into the University Hospital of Montpellier.

After a complaint filed by Meggy’s family for “aiding a person in danger and murder”, the Montpellier public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.

Drama as a sign of the breakdown of the public hospital

If in these disasters, medical management assistants are the first to be blamed, these failures must be placed in the context of the health system: the increase in the closure of emergency services across France as well as cases of patient death forgotten on stretch witness this crisis in the public hospital. While for years, workers in the sector have denied the lack of staff and means to provide proper care, Macron’s government expects, as part of the 2025 social security funding bill, to reduce health costs. This harsh offensive is based on the management logic used in hospitals: deterioration in the working conditions of nursing staff which finds itself with an ever-increasing number of people to care for, but with ever fewer resources, only exacerbates errors in patient care.

Meggy’s death, just like Israel Tambu Kipepe, a A 13-year-old teenager who died on October 28 in Bourges, after a heart attack, after several calls sent to the SAMU by parents who warned them about the worrying state of their son’s health, remember other cases where the symptoms of the victims were underestimated, which led to preventive care which was adjusted according to the severity of the illness. situations.

If there is no evidence so far of racist attitudes or behavior towards Meggy, this drama still fits death of Naomi Musenga, a 22-year-old black woman died after she called the 15th and confronted a regulator who mocked her and did not respond to her pleas for medical care even though she said she was going to die. The recordings of the call between Naomi and the operator highlighted the way in which the suffering expressed by racialized patients is minimized and even discouraged. Last year, a study conducted by Xavier Bobbia, a teacher-researcher and emergency physician at the University Hospital of Montpellier, has proven sexism and racism in patient care : conducted among 1,563 emergency doctors in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Monaco, they concluded that, with equal indications, men are given more importance than women, and white people more than racial people.

The struggle against the breakdown of the public hospital and its effects, from the unsanitary conditions of hospitals to the exhaustion of nursing staff, including the deterioration of the reception conditions of patients, combat emergency building to a 100% public health system. without being controlled by a management logic that puts our lives at risk, with resources that meet the needs of the people.