The Reims University Hospital announced to the family of this quadriplegic patient in a vegetative state that the procedure leading or not to the end of care would resume.
A new showdown begins between the University Hospital of Reims (Marne) and the parents of Vincent Lambert, a patient hospitalized since 2008 in a vegetative state. Dr Vincent Sanchez notified the family by letter that a collegial procedure that may or may not lead to the cessation of care was going to be initiated, reports the‘Union.
This procedure was requested by François Lambert, the nephew of Vincent Lambert, in favor of an interruption of treatment. Since 2013, it is the 4e time that doctors are invited to look into the file of this 41-year-old man who was the victim of a car accident.
A media and legal matter
Each time, the family of this quadriplegic has been torn apart in court, with on one side the parents of the patient and two of his brothers and sisters who wish to keep him alive, and on the other, his wife, his son. nephew and close family. The judges of the European Court of Human Rights validated the cessation of treatment in 2015.
But the doctors of the University Hospital of Reims never applied this decision. Dr Daniela Simon had preferred to put an end to the collegial procedure, judging that “the conditions of serenity and security” were not met.
Last July, this decision of the practitioner was deemed illegal by the Council of State, as had done before him the Court of Appeal of Nancy. The Wise Men therefore demanded from the Reims University Hospital that the procedure for stopping treatment be resumed. A duty that now falls to Dr Vincent Sanchez, Vincent Lambert’s new doctor.
No schedule
For now, the doctor has not set any precise timetable. “I’m not leaving defeatist, but I think there is a good chance, given the attitude of the CHU for two years, that it does not lead to something concrete, that it is still words on one end of paper ”, reacted to AFP François Lambert.
The parents’ lawyer, Me Jean Paillot, for his part said that his clients had asked to meet with Dr Sanchez. “For now, we are awaiting a response from him. Relations are quite limited with the parents. […] If we don’t talk to each other, things can’t improve, ”he said on a daily basis.
At the same time, the parents are still trying to get their son transferred to a specialized center.
.