Posted on 01/21/2016 4:58:34 AM PST by marshmallow
Lyon, France, Jan 20, 2016 / 03:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After sustaining a damaged leg tendon in 1982, 34-year old international footballer Jean-Pierre Adams thought that a routine knee surgery at a hospital in Lyon, France would relieve some of his discomfort.
By the end of the day, the surgery had left Adams in a comatose state, unable to perform normal bodily functions like walking or talking.
That was over thirty years ago.
Today, his devoted wife Bernadette personally cares for Jean-Pierre in their home near Nimes, France, where the beloved footballer remains bedridden and comatose.
"I think he feels things. He must recognize the sound of my voice as well," Bernadette told CNN in a recent interview, saying he can still breathe on his own but needs round-the-clock attention.
Bernadette and Jean-Pierre met at a dance in the 1960s. As an interracial couple, the two grew in resilience through the challenges they faced and married in 1969. Not long after, Jean-Pierre was playing first division side football as the "garde noire" alongside some of the best in the world.
"He was the 'joie di vivre' embodied in human form - a laugher and joker who liked to go out," his wife told CNN.
That all changed on March 17, 1982 when the understaffed hospital botched Adams' intubation, causing a heart attack, brain damage, and an eventual coma. The surgery was ruled as an "involuntary injury" and the medical workers were found guilty seven years after the incident.
Jean-Pierre, now 68, is cared for daily by his faithful wife Bernadette. She feeds him, talks to him, clothes him, and still buys presents for him to open on his birthday.
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Sweet. But Americans, take note. Routine health care becomes dangerous when hospitals provide free government care and are UNDERSTAFFED. Yes, that is why this dear man is in a coma after knee surgery.
It can happen here too. Believe me. In 1986, I was helping my brother-in-law building his house and about 15-20 sheets of 4X12 foot sheet rock that was stacked against the wall tipped over and pinned me under it.
Both legs were broken, left ankle crushed, and the ACLs in my right knee were torn irreparably. The surgeon who did the arthroscopic surgery on the knee to clean up the cartilage and remove the tissue had a fluid pump going to evacuate cut material. What none of them bothered to check on was the inflow versus outflow, and by the time they were done and pulled off the sheets around the knee, my right leg was as big as my waist almost. I spent the next week in the hospital being monitored for blood flow to the foot and damned near lost that leg.
My wife ditched me when she realized how much of a sucker I was to non-conflicting situations and sitting around paying for her old bills.
Go-go marriage.
Accidents can happen. But the difference is under government health care, you can’t sue. I don’t know if you did, but here you can get damages.
Why would anyone in their right mind think the government can run medical care when the VA is third world. Literally. Their clinics have to use third world resuscitation methods because they don’t have the training for intubation and because of staffing they rely on physicians assistants for major decisions.
ALL PROTECTED BY THE FEDERAL UNIONS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE. yup. screaming like a drill instructor.
Actually, I didn’t sue. In the end, I believed it was an honest (although somewhat careless) mistake. One which I’m positive this surgeon never committed again. He actually came to the hospital each night (sometimes midnight to 2 AM) and checked the blood flow with a Doppler flow measurement device (the flow was so low it could only be measured at that time with that device).
I’m not happy with what happened, but there were also a lot of thinks that happened in the military between 1968 and 1976 I wasn’t happy with. I just decided to make the best of it and move on.
For better or worse. Being lived out. God bless them both.
My first thought was So? She obviously loves him. That’s not weird. Or noteworthy. or something.
The author Robin Cook’s latest book “Host” is along the line of anesthesia related coma.
What she's doing is a tremendous act of love and it says a whole lot about her character. I doubt you could find an American woman who would do the same for that long; 33 years is a long time.
Things hardly ever go “as planned” in life. Now, some may
live in a dream world; most of us don’t. - I advise people
to get them a mate in life that will stick with them and
who honors the MARRIAGE VOWS that they repeat at the
wedding. Husband & I have been married over 51 years. I
think I was the stubborn one. Now he’s glad I was as he has
had over 35 years of very challenging surgeries & health
problems. - Now, I’m not saying he would have had the same
health situations IF he had taken off with the little
gold digger that was after him 9 years in UNTIL she
figured out that he didn’t have a pot to pee in and then
turned her radar on to the president of the company where
they worked. (I also suspect she had a hand in getting my
husband fired from that company.) - I’ve kept on keeping on;
but would NOT marry again even if anyone else would have me
at this late stage in life.
Last year, a woman who used to send me invoices by email from her company died after "routine" knee surgery. I guess there's no such thing as routine surgery, and I've had a few myself.
I know a man who’s wife has early onset Alzheimer’s and is in a coma now.
He refuses to let her go even tho she has to be fed with a feeding tube and requires 24 hour care. She hasn’t opened her eyes in years.
I feel that is just wrong. Like keeping a piece of meat in the freezer.
Yes I agree. He and the children had a meeting and it was decided that when the time came this would not happen.
Then the time came and went and he could not let her go. Heartbreaking for all.
I bet you could, but it would probably be rare.
Prayers for both this man and his wife. May God bless them.
Amazing, beyond extra-ordinary, real true LOVE! Reminds me of another dedicated love, doing what money cannot buy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lemke
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