24-year-old man dies despite several calls to emergency services, family to file complaint

He was suffocating and was only half breathing. Esteban Vermeersch, 24, died last January despite calls to the emergency services , BFMTV learned, confirming information from our colleagues at Ouest-France .

On January 28, around 10:30 p.m., the young man, who works as an artisan baker, called the Emergency Response Center in Le Mans, Sarthe. He told them he was having difficulty breathing and was experiencing pain radiating to his chest. The 1.85m tall, 53kg young man couldn't get up, or even sit up in bed. His mother and two siblings were worried. The doctor, for his part, concluded it was a muscular problem and recommended taking painkillers.

The following night was very trying, Esteban vomited. "I stayed with him, thinking it was nothing, just muscular. We trust the doctors. So I didn't call back…" his mother, Dorothée, explained to Ouest-France.

Upon waking, the young man was "very pale," with "slightly purple lips." The mother and her two 20-year-old twin sisters, very worried, decided to call the emergency services around 2:30 p.m. The same muscular diagnosis was then made. However, the emergency services suggested that the mother take her son to the emergency room to be "reassured."

Esteban was listless, making it difficult to move him. "He suddenly collapsed in my arms. He was in cardiac arrest, he wasn't breathing anymore," his mother said. She began performing cardiac massage, while calling for help for the third time. The firefighters arrived and took over. After 50 minutes of cardiac massage, the young man was transferred to the hospital in Le Mans.

"All night, I hoped," confides Dorothée, who has been on sick leave since her son's death. "Until they told me that if Esteban woke up, his brain was too damaged from the lack of oxygen anyway."

"I ended up telling my son to leave, that there was no point in fighting anymore," she continues. Esteban died on the morning of January 30, more than 24 hours after his first call to the emergency services.

Now, the family's lawyer, Vincent Sehier, has announced to BFMTV his intention to file a complaint this week for involuntary manslaughter.

According to him, there was a regulatory error from the very first appeal. The lawyer submitted a request for an amicable settlement and a right to compensation twice last June, without receiving a response.

The family also approached the Le Mans hospital last May for mediation. For Esteban's mother, this tragedy "shouldn't have happened" and "it must not happen again."