In September 2022, Thierry Aniorte, municipal employee in Tourreilles (Aude) suffered a heart attack at his workplace. He and his family contacted the emergency services several times, but the regulating doctor on duty refused to send an ambulance to the scene.
The Aniorte family will no doubt remember September 30, 2022 for a long time – and not for good. a heart attack at his place of work. He and his family deplore a total lack of support from the emergency services which could have been fatal to him.
That day, at the end of the morning, the person concerned – a municipal employee in this small town of some 130 inhabitants – began to feel severe pains in the chest while he was in the middle of clearing. As described by our colleagues from France 3he immediately contacts his wife by telephone, who advises him to contact 15.
“His case is deemed not to be of concern”
While the pain continues to grow, an assistant to the town hall comes to support him, and begins to contact the emergency services. Despite some technical malfunctions, Thierry Aniorte is put in touch with a technical regulator of the Samu: “His case is considered not to be of concern, relates his wife, Christine Aniorte, to our colleagues. We explain to him that it is surely a question of lung infection due to Covid”. The 40-year-old is invited to go home and make an appointment with his attending physician.
The municipal agent sees his state of health worsen. Thierry’s family then contacted the medical office in Tourreilles: the general practitioner was formal, the municipal agent required rapid treatment. More than thirty minutes after the start of the crisis, Thierry’s entourage tries a second time to contact the Samu: the regulating doctor persists and refuses to send an ambulance to the scene. Christine Aniote then decides to contact her son, who works as a firefighter. This one goes very quickly to the sides of his father, particularly suffering. It is he who will contact the Samu a third time: “We send him for a walk, because this is the 3rd time they have called for him”, describes Christine.
A case brought to court
Thierry’s state of health worsens, and the 40-year-old’s family decides to take him to the rescue center in Limoux. The firefighters take charge of the municipal employee: he will make 5 cardiorespiratory arrests until his arrival at the emergency room in Carcassonne, around 12:30 p.m. Thierry then spent 5 days in intensive care after the placement of a stent: his days were no longer in danger.
Still, for the Aniorte family, it’s misunderstanding: Christine and Thierry have decided to file a complaint against the regulating doctor for “non-assistance to anyone in danger”. For its part, the direction of the SDIS of the Aude explains that this “drama is the consequence of a lack of human resources of the emergency services which affects the Aude but also many French departments. The firefighters of the ‘Aude are able to welcome emergency doctors and nurses, and to accompany them in all the rescue missions for people entrusted to us.
In the Aude, the emergency service depends indeed on the hospital of Carcassonne. The establishment refuses to comment.