How Jean-Pierre Adams whose dream was cut short by medical error died after 39 years in coma
Jean-Pierre Adams, the former France international footballer, who was given an anaesthetic that sent him into a coma for almost four decades, has died.
Adams died aged 73, on Monday, September 6, 2021, after 39 years in a coma.
His former clubs, PSG, Nice and Nîmes are mourning the death of the former defender as a club legend.
“His love of life, charisma and experience quickly brought respect. Paris Saint-Germain offers heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones,” a statement by PSG said.
His life and career were shuttered in March 1982 after he was administered an overdose of anaesthetic before a knee surgery at the Lyon hospital in France.
Born on 10 March 1948, in Dakar, Senegal, the oldest child of a large family, Adams moved to France at the age of eight for his education.
The odds appeared to be against his football career from his formative days. First, his family didn’t want him to play football, they wanted him to go to school and sent him to France. When he moved to France and started playing football as an adolescent, he had a knee injury that almost stopped him from becoming a professional footballer. When he survived this, he was involved in a fatal car crash that left him with cuts but claimed the life of his close friend. That was too much trouble for a 19-year-old, and 15 years later at age 34, a fatal medical error sentenced him to life in a coma for 39 years.
He had a stint in the Army and as a professional footballer he played for the French national team in the 1970s. He also played for Nîmes from 1970-73; he was at Nice between 1973 and 1977, and Paris Saint Germain (PSG) from 1977-79.
Adams was on a week-long coaching course in Bourguignon town, France, when he suffered a knee injury on the third day of the course. The injury forced him to quit the course and check into a hospital in Lyon.
Staff at the hospital were on strike on March 17, 1982, the day of the surgery. “The female anesthetist was looking after eight patients, one after the other, like an assembly line,” his wife Bernadette told CNN in 2016.
The anaesthetist entrusted Adams with a trainee and reports say several errors occurred between the duo causing Adams to suffer a brain damage that shut him down for almost 40 years.
According to BBC, the anaesthetist and trainee were given a one-month suspended sentence and a 750 euro fine in the mid 1990s while Adams and his wife got financial support from the French football federation and his former clubs.
Bernadette, who was optimistic that he would return to life, was by his side and cared for him until death.
“Jean-Pierre feels, smells, hears, jumps when a dog barks. But he cannot see,” Bernadette said in 2007. “There was a lot of damage in the brain. But he does not age, but for a few white hairs.”
Adams is survived by his wife, his two sons Laurent (who also played for Nîmes) and Frederic and grandchildren.
