The management and diagnosis of Lyme disease are regularly singled out in France. For the first time, a patient files a criminal complaint against X for aggravated deception, relates The Parisian. Isabelle A., a forty-year-old mother, spent a year in medical wandering before pinpointing the illness that prevented her from walking.
In November 2015, she felt the first symptoms, tingling all over the left side of her body. These increase, forcing him to stop working. Her condition is deteriorating, she can no longer move except in a wheelchair. Isabelle performs two tests authorized in France to diagnose Lyme disease, but these are both negative. The mother of the family undergoes eight hospitalizations, numerous examinations and treatments which do not relieve her illness. The doctors are leaning towards Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disease for which she is receiving immunoglobulin cures. No effect either, the symptoms come back. A neurologist thinks him of a depression.
An animal test
Her doctor husband inquires, the couple consults a new specialist who explains to them that other tests exist to detect possible Lyme disease. Problem: in France they are reserved for animals. Never mind, Isabelle is building a case by pretending to be a dog, even though this practice is illegal.
Finally, a diagnosis is indeed Lyme disease. Three months of antibiotics will be enough to make Isabelle walk again. The patient “does not blame the doctors who examined her, who are misinformed”. By filing a complaint, she wants to bring to light what she considers to be a health scandal and alert the public authorities. The couple are now closely following the actions of the Ministry of Health undertaken as part of the national plan to fight against Lyme disease. The first measures were presented at the end of January.
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