The cessation of care administered to Vincent Lambert to keep him alive began on Monday morning. How will the next few days unfold?
“The cessation of treatment” and “deep and continuous sedation” were “initiated this morning”, indicated Doctor Sanchez, head of the palliative care department where Vincent Lambert is located, in an email addressed to the family, according to the AFP. “In this painful period, I hope for Mr. Vincent Lambert that everyone will be able to open a parenthesis and come together, with him, so that these moments are as peaceful, intimate and personal as possible”.
This decision, validated at the end of April by the Council of State after a long legal battle between the members of the family, therefore provides for the stopping of the machines intended to hydrate and feed it, as well as the administration ofpainkillers “as a precaution”. Because even if his deep neurovegetative state makes it possible to affirm that he does not feel any pain, who can really be certain? Victim of a car accident in 2008, the latter has been in a vegetative state for more than 10 years and cannot move, speak or swallow.
“It’s monsters!”
The question of his future divided the members of his family with on one side his wife, some of his brothers and sisters as well as his nephew who wish to stop the treatments, and on the other, his parents who have multiplied the appeals since April 2018 to prevent this initiative. In vain.
The lawyer for Vincent Lambert’s parents described this initiative as “shame”, of “absolute scandal”. “They couldn’t even kiss their son,” Jean Paillot, who was planning to file three new appeals on Monday, told AFP. “It’s monsters! Monsters! It’s Nazis!”, reacted the mother of Vincent Lambert, who considers that her son is severely disabled and should be transferred to a specialized establishment, despite his ” chronic vegetative state irreversible” has been confirmed by the experts.
How will Vincent Lambert die?
Euthanasia being prohibited in France, “Vincent Lambert will die because he will no longer have any food and water supply. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that he will not suffer. Neither stopping food, nor stopping hydration”, explains on condition of anonymity an expert at the Huffington Post. “The patient at the end of life does not die of hunger because he is not hungry, he does not die of thirst because he is not thirsty”, specifies in turn the head of the palliative care unit of an Ile-de-France hospital.
A minimum dose of hydration will still be maintained in order to administer painkillers and sedatives, but Vincent Lambert should leave in a few days. Hygiene and comfort care will of course always be provided. “The nursing staff will check that he shows no signs of pain or discomfort, that he does not have a dry mouth. He will be nursed, massaged to avoid bedsores. We are not going to close the door of his room and wait for death”, assures the expert.
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