In a vegetative state since 2008, Vincent Lambert died Thursday 11th July 2019 at the Reims hospital, announced his family to AFP.
Vincent Lambert died at the age of 42 at the hospital in Reims (Marne), Thursday, July 11, 2019, announced his family to AFP .
“Vincent died at 8:24 this morning” at the University Hospital of Reims, said his nephew François #AFP
– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) July 11, 2019
“Vincent died at 8:24 this morning” at the University Hospital of Reims, said his nephew Francis, expressing “his relief after years of suffering for everyone.”
“We were prepared to let him go,” added François Lambert, who obtained information from Vincent’s doctor.
Vincent Lambert, in a vegetative state for ten years following a road accident, had been stopped for more than a week.
A family drama
Tuesday, July 2, the latter, Dr Vincent Sanchez, head of palliative care department of the Reims University Hospital, had initiated a new treatment stop, effective since the evening of Wednesday 3rd, of this patient now 42 years old, made possible on June 28th by the Court of Cassation. In addition to stopping hydration and feeding by tube, the medical protocol included “deep and continuous sedation”. On Monday 8th July, his parents had resigned themselves to his death after having multiplied the recourses.
His death puts an end to a long serial judicial and media that saw Vincent Lambert’s family tear up: on one side, his parents, Viviane and Pierre, fervent Catholics firmly opposed to a cessation of treatment, supported by their lawyers and several associations, including the “I support Vincent” committee.
On the other, his wife Rachel, his nephew François and six brothers and sisters who denounced a “therapeutic relentlessness”. According to them, Vincent told them orally to prefer to die rather than to live “like a vegetable”, although he never wrote an advance directive.
“The case” Vincent Lambert had become the symbol of the end-of-life debate in France.
In May 2019, Vincent Lambert’s parents had implored Emmanuel Macron to maintain the treatments. The President had then assured him that he “ not belong to suspend a decision which is at the discretion of his doctors and is in accordance with our laws,” but “to hear the emotion aroused.”
