“We will never have an answer”said his mother. At 16, Julie A. died of coronavirus in Paris, making her the youngest French victim of the pandemic, yet reputed to affect mainly the elderly or vulnerable.
“It’s unbearable”, said simply Sabine, the girl’s mother. Speaking at full speed, she evokes “the shock of losing a child”, “the meaning of life”, the obligation to “Continue”.
She just had a cough
“We had to have a classic life”, she said finally, joined this Thursday by telephone by AFP, at her home in the Paris suburbs.
“She just had a cough”, repeats Sabine. A mild, mild cough that appeared a week ago that she tried to cure with syrup, herbs, inhalations.
This Saturday, Julie begins to feel short of breath. “Not huge, she was having a hard time catching her breath”, recalls his mother. Then come the coughing fits, which push her this Monday to drive her daughter, without any particular health problem, to the doctor.
There, the general practitioner notes a respiratory deficiency “acceptable”. He decides to call the Samu, finally the firefighters arrive.
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Full wetsuits, masks, gloves, “this is the 4th dimension”said the mother. They take the girl, wearing a paper mask under her oxygen mask, to the nearest hospital in Longjumeau, Essonne.
Sabine goes home. When she calls the hospital a little later, she is told about a CT scan, pulmonary opacities, “nothing serious”.
A Covid-19 test is underway.
At 16, it’s still pediatrics, we’re young
But overnight, Julie, with respiratory failure, was transferred to the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris. Two other tests at Covid-19 are being carried out.
Julie is admitted to intensive care on Tuesday. She is installed in a small room with blue walls, with cubs. “At 16, it’s still pediatrics, we’re young”said Sabine.
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When she comes to visit her daughter in the afternoon, she is anxious, speaks but quickly tires: “My heart is aching”, she says.
A false negative
But the results of the last two covid-19 tests bring good news: negative.
“We open the bedroom door, the nurses no longer wear a gown, the doctor raises his thumb to tell me it’s good”says Sabine. Julie seems to have avoided the worst.
It’s late, Sabine returns home, promises that she will return the next day.
Late in the evening, a call: the result of the first test done at Longjumeau hospital has just arrived, Julie is positive for covid-19 and her condition is deteriorating, she must be intubated.
Come quickly !
“We don’t believe it. We tell ourselves that they were wrong. And why are these results coming so late?”, Sabine wonders again.
“From the start, we have been told that the virus does not affect young people. We believed it, like everyone else”says Julie’s older sister Manon.
At around 12:30 am, another call: “Come, quickly!”.
“There, I panicked. There are words that make you understand”explains Sabine.
According to the Director General of Health, Professor Jérôme Salomon, who announced the death of the girl this Thursday evening, Julie was the victim of a severe form of the virus “extremely rare” for young people.
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“She was already gray”said Sabine.
When she arrived at the hospital with her older daughter around 1:00 am Wednesday, Julie died. She touches his hand, “his skin was still warm”, she remembers.
His sister caresses her forehead. And then immediately, they are explained that they will not see her again, the protocol in times of epidemic is strict.
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“Everything we tell you, in an hour …” said Sabine.
Impossible also to recover the affairs of the girl, everything must be burned. They still manage to keep a baptism chain, a bracelet.
A burial in a select committee
Julie’s body is in the mortuary room of Necker Hospital. He will not leave before the planned burial in a few days. As a precaution, there will be no ceremony, only ten people will be present at the cemetery.
“We had to choose among our loved ones who will be present”, says Manon. “The day of her death, we already had to choose a coffin for her.”
This coffin should remain closed and Julie “will not be made up or dressed, we are not allowed”explains his sister.
“It’s complicated to collect”she said at the same time as her mother.
According to the latest assessment, 1,696 deaths from covid-19 have been recorded in hospitals in France since the start of the epidemic.
Since Thursday evening, the television banners have repeatedly pointed out that a 16-year-old girl died from the coronavirus.
“It’s horrible because I know it’s mine”, said Sabine.
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