Death of Francine Leca, first female cardiac surgeon in France

Francine Leca died at the age of 86. She was the first woman to become a cardiac surgeon in France. On Saturday June 15, her death was announced by the Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque association, which she founded in 1996.

Francine Leca: a passion for cardiology

On its site, the association links to a comic strip published in April 2024 in the magazine Pictures Doc. The story traces the journey of Francine Leca. In 1968, she was a seventh-year medical student and was thinking of moving into hand surgery, when she attended an open heart operation for the first time at the Laennec hospital (7th arrondissement of Paris). At the microphone of RCFin February 2022, she said she felt at that moment a “love at first sight, the real one, the one that leaves you in place, that completely overwhelms you.”.

The young intern then decided to move towards cardiac surgery. In 1971, she became the first woman to practice the profession in France. Later, she chose to operate only on children. “A child born with a heart defect generally has few years to live and they live poorly.she specified on the Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque website. Only surgery that will repair his heart can allow him to survive in good conditions. But this essential gesture must be surrounded. Before: the diagnosis and the surgical indication must be precise. Afterwards: the child must be medically monitored.”

How was the Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque association born, founded by Francine Leca?

In 1995, while stationed at Laennec hospital, the surgeon received a letter from an Iranian father: his son had a heart condition and could not be operated on in Iran. But the hospital management in France refuses to bring him because of the high costs. The case of this child was a turning point for Francine Leca: she received a first donation which would help her found the Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque association. In July 1996, the first mission began: two children arrived from Moldova to undergo surgery in Paris.

“Mécénat was born in 1996 from a very simple observation: we have in our hands a ‘magical’ power, that of knowing how to repair hearts and thus give a second birth to so many children, she specified on the association’s website. But this surgery is very expensive, and many people around the world will not be eligible for it.” More than 5,000 children have been treated thanks to the association. They are supported in around ten towns in France and Switzerland and hosted by host families.

Francine Leca, a surgeon close to her patients

During her career, Francine Leca subsequently became head of the cardiac surgery departments at Laennec and Necker hospitals, positions she held for 17 years. She confided that she was “remained close to many of her former patients whom she had operated on as children.as Pascale Grais-Lacour, who worked alongside him for 45 years, recalls in an interview with France Info. “She said: ‘I’m not a can opener, I operate on my patients and I follow them.”