The first time that…
…did you have the idea of doing your specialty?
FL I first studied medicine to do surgery. It is a manual specialty in which you immediately see the results. I’m so impatient, it’s a specialty that suits my character well! During my first externships at Laennec hospital, I moved into cardiac surgery. It was love at first sight!
…did you examine a patient?
FL I was an external student at Beaujon. I took night shifts in the emergency room. It was an incredible moment: approaching the patient, talking with him. I said to myself “what a responsibility!” “. One thing I have repeated thousands of times to young people: it doesn’t matter whether the patient is an old man or a baby: talk to him!
…you were right against your boss?
FL Once, I had specific instructions for a surgical procedure to perform. I didn’t agree at all and I think I was right. I was already head of clinic. I believe that in medicine, the intern quickly becomes a senior, but in surgery, especially in cardiac surgery, he is still a very young student!
…have you considered a career in university hospital?
FL As soon as I entered hospital life, I no longer even asked myself any questions. I was fascinated, I liked everything. This is where I wanted to work.
…have you considered quitting medicine?
FL Never !
The last time that…
… have you felt “overwhelmed” by a patient?
FL This has happened to me sometimes, fortunately rarely. Difficult congenital malformations that have been operated on several times. We try another operation because things are not going well, and then we come across terrible adhesions, with hemorrhages. We literally fight. At times, we say to ourselves, “I’m not going to make it.” In general, we get there, at the cost of such long and difficult interventions. The repair is not necessarily good and the patient escapes us. Today I operate less. Not so much because of the surgical procedure, but because there is a whole lot of follow-up behind it, a whole lot of emergency availability to be had, which I no longer feel like taking on. It requires good physical condition, a bit like an athlete!
…have you been moved by a patient, a family?
FL With Mécénat, I take care of children from all over the world. I receive them with their host family before the surgical procedure. I am moved almost every time: by the trust, the generosity of the host families, by the physical appearance of certain children who are not doing well, have difficulty breathing, are malnourished. After the operation, they gained 4 kilos, they walk even though they could barely stand, they have been transformed! Cardiac surgery for children is a bit of a miracle!
