On October 15, a 25-year-old Montpellier woman died of severe acute meningitis at the University Hospital. Her friend, who was by her side, recounts the repeated calls to Samu and the failure to take care of the victim despite alarming symptoms.
The day of the tragedy, she called you for help, right?
Quite. She called me around 2 p.m. to tell me she was feeling really bad. That she had vomited all night. That she had severe aches like she had never had before and asked me to bring her some fruit because she had to eat and nothing was happening. As well as a medicine for body aches. I stopped by the pharmacy and grocery store and arrived at her house at 3:11 p.m.
What was she like at that time?
When I saw her, I said to her: “It’s Samu right there”. So at 3:15 p.m., I had my first call with the Samu where I explained that the symptoms were quite “boats”. That she had a fever, that she had vomited all night, that she had severe body aches, that she was asthmatic and that she was having trouble breathing. The person I spoke to asked me to give him my phone. She was in extreme pain.
He then asked her to calm down in a tone that I consider contemptuous. I spoke again and said: “I don’t know if it’s not severe food poisoning”. And there he said to me again: “You’re going to tell your friend to calm down and she’ll be fine.”. Then he told me that he was going to give me an address to go see SOS Médecins.
That’s when I cut her off by telling her that she couldn’t travel and that I didn’t have transportation. I insisted, asking him to please send someone to us. He inquired then came back saying: “No, I don’t have anyone, here’s the address and he hung up.”
What did you do?
I immediately called a friend but because he was working he couldn’t come. I called another, who doesn’t have a car but who came to help me. And, at 3:45 p.m., seeing that his case was getting worse, I called the firefighters this time saying to myself “the Samu didn’t do anything, I’m going to try the firefighters”. Especially since she had just admitted to us that she had fainted before my arrival. But when I contacted the firefighters, they told me that there was nothing they could do and that I would have to go to the Samu and they passed them on to me internally.
From there, my friend told us that she could no longer feel her right hand, that she could no longer move her fingers or feet and that she was having more and more difficulty breathing. The ambulance person asked me if his stools were bloody. After asking, I told him yes. He asked me again to put my friend on the phone.
“It was a real ray of sunshine”
To respect the wishes of the family and friends, we will not reveal the identity of the victim. A native of Guadeloupe and aged 25, she was employed by the City of Montpellier as a lawyer.
She had studied in Orléans. In terms of her personality, according to her friend, “she was a real ray of sunshine. She was full of life and had the joy of living all the time. She was a bon vivant who lived her life to the fullest. She was a very motivated person who always had “desire to move forward. She left her mark.”
“She was passionate about heels, which is a dance of heels. She also loved reading, singing, dancing, partying, being with her friends, traveling. In short, she enjoyed life to the fullest.”
His funeral took place this Friday, October 25 in Montpellier.
She repeated to him that she was in great pain, that she could no longer feel her body or her hand and that she was in pain. And there he replied: “No, but Madam, you cannot be in pain and no longer feel your body”. And my friend replied: “Not feeling your hand anymore is disturbing, isn’t it?”.
And he advised her to run her hand under hot water and take a hot shower while prescribing medicine for the aches. And that afterwards, according to him, things would be better.
Except that after his shower, we realized that many spots had appeared on his body and face. And then it clicked in my head, I understood that it was serious so I called my friend who was working and I told him: “Come as quickly as possible, he’s taking him to the hospital. Nobody wants to help us.”
What time did he arrive?
Around 5 p.m. We tried to carry her but she could no longer bend her legs or move them. Her feet were completely turned inside out. We set off at full speed but two minutes before we arrived at the Saint-Roch polyclinic, she had a cardiac arrest in the car. I had a panic attack while on the phone with Samu. I admit that I took out my nerves on them.
My friend, who was driving one-handed, punched him several times in the heart to try to get him to drive away. But she didn’t wake up. Then the health staff took care of her. Then people came to us asking who he was and what had happened. A few minutes later, we learned that her vital prognosis was in jeopardy and that she was being transferred to Lapeyronie.
How many times did you call emergency services that day?
The first call to 15 was made at 3:15 p.m. and lasted 11 minutes. The second, at 18, at 3:45 p.m. It lasted 20 minutes because they transferred me internally to the Samu. And the last one, at the Samu again, at 5:17 p.m. It lasted 3 minutes. I still don’t understand that given the symptoms that were described, no one realized the seriousness of the thing.
