25-year-old woman dies of meningitis, ambulance accused of neglecting her call for help

After the death of the young woman, two investigations were opened, one by the Montpellier public prosecutor's office, the other by the ARS Occitanie.

The case is reminiscent of the infamous Naomi Musenga case. The tragedy, which occurred on October 15, was made official last Friday in a press release from the Montpellier University Hospital. It revealed, as reported by Midi Libre, the “brutal death” of a 25-year-old patient. The woman, who was a lawyer employed by the City of Montpellier, died following fulminating acute meningitis. But the victim's relatives are now denouncing a malfunction in the center responsible for regulating emergency calls. The young woman had in fact contacted the emergency services several times. Her parents have also filed a complaint complaint for involuntary manslaughter.

“My best friend, my confidante was abandoned by those who are supposed to protect us, despite my repeated calls to 15 and 18, no doctor, no Smur or Sdis 34, no ambulance for several hours”, deplores the victim's friend, who had finally taken her herself the young woman in the emergency room, with our colleagues at Actu.fr. 

"I see everything white, my body is on fire, I'm going to die"

According to this friend's account, on October 15, the victim contacted her to come and help her when she was feeling very bad. Vomiting, high fever, fainting, “stools with blood-red liquid”, legs that no longer move and even a completely rigid right hand, the symptoms are worrying, but the young woman's friend claims that her repeated calls to 15, then 18 have been in vain.

Worse still, the operators' response even ended up becoming contemptuous. “She said to him: “My hand hurts, I can't feel it anymore.” And he replied: “You can't have a pain in your hand and not feel it anymore.” […] He told her: 'You're going to run your hand under hot water and take a hot shower and çit'll be fine", she recalled on BFMTV this Monday. And to castigate: "They have the right to be wrong, but there was a huge misunderstanding and a huge judgment."

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Faced with the refusal of the Samu to send a team, the friend says she was " forced to call a relative with a vehicle to help her. Together, they then allegedly carried the young woman into the car before heading to the hospital. On the way, the victim then allegedly felt her end approaching, repeating over and over again, as relayed by Le Parisien: “I see everything white, my body is on fire, I'm going to die.” After losing consciousness before arriving at the emergency room of the Saint-Roch polyclinic, the young woman, subsequently transferred to the Montpellier University Hospital, finally died “two hours after being admitted”, affirmed Monday morning the deputy public prosecutor of Montpellier, Marco Scuccimarra, at our colleagues.

Two investigations opened, Samu regulatory assistant suspended

The Montpellier public prosecutor's office has since opened an investigation, as has the R' regional health amp;eacute; (ARS) of Occitanie. The deputy prosecutor specifies at Parisienthat at this stage, the qualification of involuntary manslaughter has not been retained. This in fact presupposes that “a causal link” is demonstrated between possible errors in care and death”.

For its part, the hospital center indicates, in its press release, that “the details of the tragedy are still unclear”, but that the CHU intends to “provide in complete transparency the necessary details to understand the exact circumstances of the death of this young patient” his relatives and that he “will collaborate with the greatest transparency with all authorities”.

As reported by BFMTV, the Samu's assistant regulator has, for his part, been suspended. Speaking to the continuous news channel, Louis Soulat, vice-president of Samu urgences de France, stated that “from the start, there was a medical regulation and there was a proposal, that is to say the request of a general practitioner at home” which was not possible. Then, the regulator seems to have fallen back on a consultation at which the patient had to travel”. Pointing out that “medical regulation is a very difficult act, which is done over the phone”, Louis Soulat also wanted to emphasize that “in the present case, these are relatively frequent symptoms during this period of the year”, without minimizing the facts.