A mother-of-three who had all four of her limbs were amputated after doctors were slow to treat an infection that she had sustained during an abortion, is now almost 14 years after the tragedy struck, opposite the practitioners in court.
The French wife Priscilla Dray suffered septic shock within a few hours after leaving Pellegrin University Hospital in Bordeaux after an elective abortion in 2011.
She claimed that she had arrived for the procedure in 'Great Form', but was 'Left To Die' when doctors refused her antibiotics for the infection.
A day later she was left untreated for hours in the first aid of the hospital, even after she arrived in an ambulance with an urgent referral from a doctor who had diagnosed her with septicemie.
The former shopkeeper, then 36, narrowly survived but suffered serious necrosis because of the delayed care. Doctors were forced to ambit both legs, her right forearm and her left hand.
This morning, Mrs. Dray, now 50, said reporters of the horrors she has passed as a result of what she claims is negligence of the doctors who have been assigned to her case and called for 'exemplary justice' to be done.
Two hospital doctors appeared yesterday for the Bordeaux Criminal Court, charged with involuntary injuries with disability. Mrs. Dray also sues the university hospital as a legal entity.
“I am very stressed … This is something I have waited for 14 years, and psychologically it is not easy … but I need this hearing to be able to have the answers to questions I have long asked time, '' Mrs. Dray told French media.
'It is unacceptable that things like this can happen … I expect exemplary justice, a very, very strong statement that reflects the size of my suffering, the size of what they took from me.
'You have no choice but to continue because of your children. I expect a lot for the size of the suffering that I have endured- that my husband and children have endured 14 years, “she concluded.
Mrs. Dray went to the hospital to have an abortion in July 2011. Towards the end of August she suffered from sepsis and necrosis and eventually lost all four limbs
Mrs. Dray miraculously survived her testing, but developed serious necrosis as 'carnivorous bacteria' destroyed her limbs
Three mother claimed that her temperature rose to 39.6 ° C hours after she had undergone a voluntary abortion, so she went to the emergency department of the University Hospital on July 23, 2011.
Her IUD was removed and a cotton swab before a trainee reportedly concluded that she probably suffered from endometriosis.
Under advice, Mrs. Dray asked for antibiotics, but was reportedly refused and sent home by the doctor's service.
The next day, on the morning of July 24, 2011, she went to a doctor in Cap Ferret who complained about serious fever and stomach pain.
The doctor suspected that she had developed blood poisoning and immediately referred her to the Emergency Department with a note to pass on to doctors.
Dray arrived within a few hours at the University Hospital in an ambulance, Struggling to breathe and present with frozen hands and feet – a meaningful sign of septic shock.
But she got another trainee who reportedly spotted her doctor's referral.
'When I arrived at first aid, I was in pain. I had come across a wall of indifference. I begged the trainee to help me and to get me urgently to the hospital, “said Mrs. Dray.
“When I mentioned the letter from the doctor, laughed (the trainee) and said,” It is not the doctors who are going to decide for me. ”
Despite her condition, Mrs. Dray was forced to lie on a stretcher for hours. She was later administered antibiotics, but her condition deteriorated quickly and at 11.30 pm she was taken to intensive care.
According to France3, her chance of survival was estimated at around five percent in the night of 24 July.
'I trusted [them] And this is the state in which they stopped me, “she told French media earlier.
“They killed me … Normally I would have died.”
Mrs. Dray miraculously survived her test, but developed serious necrosis as an unbridled case of Streptococcus A, often referred to as 'carnivorous bacteria', destroyed her limbs.
Towards the end of August, doctors said that her limbs could not be saved and decided to ampute the decision.
Mrs. Dray, who chose to have an abortion after she became pregnant, said only a few months after the birth of her third child, said she could not see her baby three months after her amputations were performed.
“They removed all those moments of happiness,” she said. “I don't think there is something worse.”
She underwent a valuable hand transplant in the US at her own expense, so that she had to spend 'many months' back in the hospital
In 2018, seven years after the tragedy, Mrs. Dray courageously shared her difficulties to adapt to her condition in an interview with a French news exit.
“Someone helps me at home every day,” she told Sud Ouest.
'For every daily task you must be able to adapt and organize yourself.
'The hardest thing is to get to terms and tell yourself that there are things that you can no longer do. It's difficult. '
“It's my three children who give me this energy,” she said, asked how she overcomes the challenges of daily life.
'I would not have had the same power without them. And I still live in the hope of repairing myself. I depend on progress in medicine and technology. '
Mrs. Dray's life has been destroyed by a flood of operations since the amputations, including more than 50 operations to implant and adjust metal bars in its tibia to repair prostheses.
She also underwent an expensive hand transplant in the US at her own expense, so that she had to spend 'many months' back in the hospital.
This week she told the French media that she is recovering from organ rejection after having undergone a kidney transplantation last year.
Now, almost 14 years after the moment that tragedy contains Mrs. Dray, the Bordeaux crime bank tries to determine the responsibilities of each party in the case and to reign whether medical mistakes were made in the course of her care.
A photo taken on January 25, 2020 shows a general picture of the Pellegrin University Hospital (CHU) in Bordeaux
The university hospital has already received a fine of 300,000 euros for admission to future compensation.
Two doctors from the Gynecological Emergency Department are also confronted with prosecution because they cause involuntary injury.
A suspect claimed that he had a telephone conversation with a trainee who initially decided to prescribe Mrs. Dray Antibiotics, according to a judicial report from Sud Ouest. He said the patient had no fever and therefore the decision to send her home was justified.
'The tragedy of Streptococcus A is the intermittency of the symptoms and the sudden nature of the progression. When we perform clinical examinations, they do not reveal a fever. We have to take this into account, “he said to the court.
'If I was aware of a feverish episode at night, I would have asked to return to first aid. I understand that this is hard to hear, but today I would have the same attitude as fourteen years ago. '
A second suspect was present in the gynecological emergency department on the day Mrs Dray returned to the hospital with an urgent reference from her doctor.
He claims that he was not aware of the behavior of his trainee and also said that he saw Mrs. Dray personally around 4 p.m., one hour before he reportedly referred her to an anaesthesiologist at 5 p.m.
But when asked if she saw the suspect in the emergency unit, Mrs. Dray responded with only one word: “Never.”
The process continues.
