Hello everyone,

First of all, thank you to the AMAVEA association for its help to the victims, and to give me the opportunity to express myself. I realize that many people are in this case!

My wife Laëtytia, 39, is not able to testify today , so I allow myself to do so in her place.

She started taking Luteran around 2011 due to recurring gynecological problems : endometriosis, painful and very abundant rules. Since that date, the drug has been renewed each time by its gynecologist.

The treatment has proven effective, until the summer of 2019, where it began to have difficulty speaking, at times a dysmorphia in the face. More generally, she had been tending to get upset more easily for some time.

She therefore consulted her general practitioner in early July who initially thought of an accumulation of stress or even a beginning of depression. It is true that we were already going through a complicated period at that time, she had just resigned from her work after several difficult months and had just lost her mother. She was also angry with two of her best friends.

But the symptoms accentuated during the summer and some of our friends began to notice it. We therefore saw the attending physician in early September who this time said a brain MRI and requested an appointment with a neurologist.

So she passed this MRI on September 26, 2019 , we were simply told that day that we would receive the results a week later. But the next day, the attending physician reminded us to announce that the MRI had revealed the presence of a meningioma! It was a shock to learn this, but we finally explained these different symptoms. Our doctor directed us to a neurosurgeon from the Nantes University Hospital , while telling us that the meningiomas generally take place rather well.

We therefore waited relatively confident with the appointment with the neurosurgeon scheduled for October 24, 2019, thinking that there would be an operation undoubtedly in November or December, certainly relatively heavy, but that in principle things would go back to order for the holidays.

Unfortunately, the consultation with the neurosurgeon did not spend as planned at all. The first question he asked us, "Do you take medication?" » . When my wife told him about Lotéran, he immediately replied "well you will stop him right away". He showed us the images of the MRI where we could see the tumor located on the left side, behind the eye, ("centered on the left anterior clinoid") and which was 8 cm in diameter! He told us that we had to wait 3 months to see if the tumor was going to decrease by itself following the stop of the luteran. And that if this was not the case, it would be necessary to operate but with very significant risks: risk of death, or heavy handicap (hemiplegia) . This announcement was a real blow. 3 months to wait with an 8cm tumor in the head !!!

We therefore left with a new MRI set for January 21, 2020, knowing that there may be no other choice than to make a particularly risky operation. In the weeks following, if the problems of speech have improved, Laëtytia had a big loss in terms of sight, particularly of the left eye, which forced him to no longer be able to drive.

In order not to fix anything, I myself fell ill on the same period. But given the situation, I did not first pay great attention to the symptoms. It was not until January 3, 2020, when before the worsening of the symptoms I was hospitalized at the CHD of La Roche sur Yon, where I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, stadium 4.

Laëtytia spent the 2nd ^MRI and saw the neurosurgeon on February 6, 2020 accompanied by a friend (I was in the hospital at that time). There, the neurosurgeon announced to him that meningioma has not decreased for 3 months. He therefore proposed the following alternative: or wait for 3 additional months, with now less likely a spontaneous decrease in meningioma, but also with the risk that symptoms, and in particular the decrease in sight, worsen. Be operated as soon as possible, but there too with very large risks linked to the operation as he had told us in October.

After a few days of hesitation we decided with Laëtytia to do the operation as soon as possible, because she no longer supported the wait. The operation was therefore set for March 4, 2020. These few days of waiting were particularly trying, especially since, after a first outing of the hospital, I was again hospitalized in emergency on February 22 due to a serious infection, a consequence of chemotherapy.

At the same time, knowing the risks of the operation, and my current treatment, we decided to educate our 10 -year -old son in his heart granny who lives in Yeu Island. Laëtytia had to manage all of this, fortunately surrounded by family and friends to help her move and take the steps, until the last day before her operation ...

It is therefore accompanied by a friend (because myself always hospitalized) that Laëtytia went to the Nantes University Hospital the day before her operation. Luckily, I was able to tell him the previous evening that my first control exams showed a very good efficiency of chemotherapy.

The operation of March 4 lasted 10 hours, and it unfortunately ended in a large hemorrhage (it seems to me to have seen 18 pockets of blood on a report), which led the neurosurgeon to clamp an artery, which will later prove to be the left Sylvian artery. This led to the 75% loss of the left hemisphere . Following the operation, Laëtytia was placed in artificial coma, from which she only released on March 16. During this coma, she also underwent a craniectomy (removal of part of the skull to lower the intra-cross pressure). She thus remained almost a month in resuscitation, under artificial ventilation, a period during which vital prognosis was engaged .

She ended up being transferred to neurology on April 2. At that time, she could only mumble a few words ("yes" "no"), and had completely lost the use of her arm and her right leg. However, she had a good understanding of events and managed to demonstrate moods.

She was transferred on May 14 to St Jacques Hospital in Nantes to follow an intensive rehabilitation: several hours of physiotherapist, speech therapist and occupational therapist each week.

This whole period was particularly difficult, because in addition to our respective health concerns, there was confinement and all the associated constraints. I could not go to see it before confinement because too weakened by the disease, and then the visits were only authorized from early June. Fortunately, my parents went down from the Paris region during this period, and which was able to communicate by Messenger, the early days with the help of the nursing teams.

Today, even if her condition is slowly improving, thanks to rehabilitation, she still has important consequences. She just manages to walk using parallel bars (the right leg is gradually starting to work) and can have been going from bed to bed with a wheelchair without assistance. His right arm still does not work still. She has made a lot of progress in recent weeks in terms of speech, and can now have a conversation, very jerky. She also lost her right eye and sees a small perimeter with the left eye, which forces her to turn her head to look at her interlocutor. On the other hand, it does not have very little concern for understanding. She continues to fight every day and, as the doctors told me several times, keeps a lot of will to go up the slope.

Doctors hope that in the long term it will recover part of the word, without however having normal fluidity, and that it can walk a few meters using a cane. On the other hand, they are more reserved concerning the right arm, and do not expect an improvement concerning the view. It was recognized as 80% invalid by the MPDH

In addition, it will have to undergo radiotherapy in order to remove the part of the meningiom which could not be removed (around 10%) during the operation.

For my part, I have been in remission and I have no more treatments since the end of June. Our son returned to the house in mid-July and resumed his normal education. We will have to do adaptation work in our house (no return possible even for a night without that). Finally, on the advice of Amavea, I contacted the Dante cabinet which asked me to constitute a file for a probable legal expertise

Here we are here today. I don't know where it will lead us, but I know, however, that the fight is still very long

Hoping that this testimony can make things happen.

Note of the association: The photos of Laëtytia are those before operation. As with many of us, the photos after operation are too painful.

Other testimonies here