The Council of State showered the last hopes of a nurse from Guérande (Loire-Atlantique), who had initially ordered the Nantes University Hospital to pay her some 352,000 euros for the "fault" committed by the Samu while she was having a cerebrovascular accident (stroke).
At the time, in 2010, the doctor-regulator had in fact attributed his speech difficulties on the phone to a probable "state of drunkenness" or to a "depression" ... He had then invited her to "go to bed" , assuring him that "it will be better tomorrow", before hanging up on him.
Partly paralyzed, this woman, now aged 51, had to crawl on the ground to her neighbors, on the landing of her floor, and bang her head repeatedly against their door for them to open it!
This had resulted in a 45-minute delay in care when he arrived at the Nantes University Hospital.
An incomprehensible "turnaround" for the complainant
But, this Tuesday, October 20, 2020, the highest French administrative court rejected the appeal of Valérie Roux against the judgment of the Nantes administrative court of appeal: last February, the latter had reduced her compensation to 40,000 euros.
On the basis of a fifth expert report, much criticized, the Nantes judges considered that there was ultimately no proven "causal link" between the delay in taking charge by the CHU and its current damages. .
Only his “moral prejudice” had been compensated.
"Ms. Roux was abandoned by the institution which should have come to her aid, when she was in a state of great physical and moral suffering", justified the judges in their judgment.
In her appeal to the Council of State, Valérie Roux considered that this judgment was "tainted with irregularities […] and insufficient motivation".
But "none of these means is likely to allow the admission of the appeal", decides the Council of State.
“My client, who sees her life changing again, does not understand this turnaround,” said her lawyer at the last hearing in Nantes.
She had criticized the "outrageous certainties" of the last expert.
“His file had to be black or white, he felt that medicine was an exact science and that his opinion was the right one,” lamented Me Axelle Naintré.