Bayonne bus driver dies: "Philippe had 99% of his brain not working anymore"

It is certainly one of the images of her father that she will keep in mind. "Dad, he's a simple person, smiling, he likes all the little things in life. Marie, 18, wanted to talk about her father in the present, until the end. Since Sunday evening, Philippe Monguillot, 58, had been connected to a machine, and in "brain dead state". He died this Friday at 5.30 p.m.

The bus driver did not survive the attack of "extreme violence" of which he was the victim, on July 5, while he was on duty behind the wheel of the T1 line of "Tram'bus" connecting Bayonne in Biarritz. It is the epilogue of a tragic history that has shaken the Bayonnais, but also the whole of France and even beyond.

"We knew he was going to leave"

"The neurologists called me around 11:30 am this Friday morning to tell me that despite the small improvements they had seen in recent days, there were other very important neurological problems. Philippe had 99% of his brain that no longer worked, "says Véronique Monguillot, the victim's wife, who was joined after the death of her husband. The mother of Philippe's three daughters continues: “The doctors went to the end of what they could do. They wanted to be reasonable. I made the same decision as them. We had discussed it with my daughters, we did not want any relentless therapy. Despite the tiny hope that had sprung up in recent days, Véronique "knew he was going to leave."

Philippe Monguillot, his wife Véronique and their three daughters, Mélanie, Marie and Manon./DR  

Sunday evening, just after her husband's assault, she and her daughters were convinced that he had only a few hours to live. Véronique, in tears, then expressed her dismay to the Parisian: “I have the impression of living a nightmare. He can't leave like that, he was going to be 59! We were destroyed in a matter of seconds! "

"I put my hand on her cheek"

So when Véronique goes to the hospital this Friday afternoon with her daughters, she knows very well what awaits her. "We went to kiss him, we talked to him. I put my hand on her still beating heart. Then when I said goodbye I put his hand on my cheek. Of course I would have liked him to wake up by a miracle, but it was over, ”says Véronique again. Then Philippe left "quietly".

Véronique and her daughters had been talking a lot since Philippe's admission to the intensive care unit at the Bayonne hospital center about the possible consequences he would have had to endure if he woke up. Her daughter, Marie, confided to us a few hours before her death: “Her heart is beating. We cling to small details. We are aware that he can have a very serious handicap. We're in the dark. "

Wednesday evening, a white march had gathered 6000 people in the streets of Bayonne. The procession rushed from Balishon, the place of the assault, to the hospital. Veronique, dignified and strong, threw the crowd dressed in white t-shirt: "We cried a lot, now we're going to fight. We will fight for all of you Chronoplus drivers, I told Philippe, know it! "

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VIDEO. Véronique Monguillot's anger during the white march

Since the day of the assault, the drivers exercised their right of withdrawal following the assault of their colleague and friend, an employee of the company for 30 years. In the middle of the week, four men aged 22 to 40 were placed in pre-trial detention. Two of them, considered to be the main perpetrators of the beating of the bus driver, for "attempted homicide". The other two for "failure to assist a person in danger".

READ ALSO> Alcohol and drugs, the deadly cocktail of attackers of the bus driver?

Floriane, a passenger on the "Tram'bus", who had climbed to the Balishon stop with one of the attackers, delivered to the Parisian an edifying testimony of the state of Philippe Monguillot, stretched out on the ground, after being beaten up foot and fists to the head. “It was incredible violence. Philippe was more than disfigured when I leaned over him ... In my opinion, these people, when they knocked, their goal was to kill him. When we see the violence that there was, they wanted to end his life, that, for me, it is clear and clear. "

When Veronique is asked what image she has of her husband, she has this chilling answer: that of a man "all alone, abandoned, killed by human fury".