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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
On March 10, a sick 17-year-old died of pneumonia after his family called the emergency room several times, without success. The parents file a complaint for negligence on the part of the medical profession.
“This is a death that could have been avoided, with less deficient care”. These words are those of the family of a teenager who died in the parking lot of a pharmacy in Cazères in Haute-Garonne, on March 10, while seeking help in the face of a worsening state of health.
“It’s a simple flu, no need to move”
The story, with a tragic end, begins on March 8, when the 17-year-old young man has been suffering from worrying symptoms for several days: vomiting, nausea that does not stop. According to a relative of the family, the boy’s mother takes him to the family doctor who advises them to go to the emergency room quickly. However, the family does not have a car. The mother then contacts the emergency services several times to obtain a vehicle. What we answer him just as many times: “Madame, it’s not worth moving, it’s a simple flu”.
The adolescent’s ailments do not pass, the parents persist in calling 15, without obtaining an ambulance. Finally, on March 10, the mother and her son went to the pharmacy in their town. The pharmacists who see the seriousness of his condition call the fire brigade just before the boy suffers a cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, when they arrived, the emergency services could do nothing to resuscitate the teenager.
A complaint filed for failing care
Following this sudden death, an autopsy ordered by the Saint-Gaudens prosecutor’s office shows that there had indeed been an error in diagnosis and that the boy suffered from pneumopathy, which could be treated, affirms the lawyer of the family of the deceased. Shocked, the parents remain convinced, however, that care would have avoided the tragedy. They decided to file a complaint against X.
“Today, the goal is to send as few people as possible to the hospital”
But more than just another news item, these dramas, which have the annoying tendency to repeat themselves, are symptomatic of a health system that is going badly and which does not react or no longer reacts as it should. For Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo, this new drama is the result of a whole system pulled down:
“Medicine is not done by telephone and we know that it remains complicated for a regulator to assess such a situation. But the question to ask is “Have all means been engaged” to save this boy? The Samu no longer has the means, they no longer have effectors, they no longer have doctors to go to the home, nor ambulances… and they are told that the emergency services are closing, so the message is to send as few people as possible to the hospital. Today, the goal of Samu regulation is to make people wait. It is not even to send patients to the hospital, since it is necessary to justify the closure of the emergency department next door. With, as here, dramatic consequences!”.