Finally free.
After hours of preparation and the intervention of about fifty people, Alain Panabière, who weighs nearly 250 kg, was evacuated Tuesday by air from his apartment in Perpignan where he had been living on the ground for months.
The exceptional and extremely delicate intervention during which the life of this 53-year-old man was at stake, required the consolidation of the two-storey house located in a district with narrow streets and the destruction of part of the facade.
Placed on a drip, Alain Panabière was moved horizontally in a large white container, suspended from a crane, then deposited in a specialized ambulance, said the prefecture of Pyrénées-Orientales.
Driven to hospital to take stock of his health
More than 50 people had been mobilized since Tuesday morning, including police, firefighters and medical teams, but also staff from the town hall and the department, said the prefecture.
"In order not to take any risk, the neighbors were asked to temporarily leave their accommodation throughout the operation," said the prefecture.
Rescue in progress of a Perpignan resident stranded at his home for over a year pic.twitter.com/vmO2u3WC9z
- BFMTV (@BFMTV) December 1, 2020
Alain Panabière will initially be taken to the Montpellier University Hospital for a "global assessment" of his state of health, before his transfer a few weeks later to a rehabilitation center, according to the head of the Endocrinology-Diabetology-Nutrition department, Antoine Avignon .
“When we re-mobilize a person immobilized for two to five years, there is a risk of circulatory decompensation, of thrombosis.
It is a cardiovascular system that is at rest for a long time which is reactivated ”, specifies the doctor.
Stuck on the ground for over a year
Living recluse at home for years, and immobilized on the ground for more than a year "after having probably broken a leg", according to his lawyer Jean Codognès, Alain Panabière was fed by his brother but his state of health was deteriorating rapidly .
After months of negotiations between his family, his lawyer and the authorities, a solution was found and the operation was prepared and coordinated by the services of the State, the department and the city.
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Me Codognès had sent a letter to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin at the end of October asking for urgent intervention.
A few days later, his client and the National League Against Obesity had filed a complaint against X for "non-assistance to a person in danger" and "failure to help a person in danger".
