The actor Arnaud Denis, in a state of severe disability after the installation of an anti-hernia implant and who had created a collective warning of their dangers, was euthanized on Tuesday in Belgium at the age of 43, to put an end to his suffering.
He had surgery for a hernia in his right groin on July 17, 2023, during which a polypropylene prosthesis was implanted in him, the start of a descent into hell, according to him.
“Arnaud Denis’ decision was taken in consultation with three doctors from Namur (in Belgium, Editor’s note). His body no longer supported him,” his lawyer Philippe Courtois told AFP, stressing that his death was the “consequence of the intense pain he had suffered for many months”.
In a final message on Facebook, Arnaud Denis explained that he saw euthanasia as “a deliverance” after “three interminable years” of “degrading” suffering, refusing anyone the right to judge him, “unless you live six months in the body of a severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patient, to understand what absolute horror is.”
“I am done with medical abuse,” he writes, denouncing the wandering, “abandonment” and “medical denial” of which he was the victim.
To those who dare to judge his decision to “want to leave with the little physical and moral dignity that I have left, I forbid them,” he writes. “They are light years away from imagining the permanent physical and neurological suffering that this disease causes. International quality of life studies place myalgic encephalomyelitis among the worst possible quality of life, all chronic diseases combined. Suicide is very high there, because there is no cure, no support, no listening. I held on, no matter what, for three years of excruciating suffering. Now I give up my arms. It’s my right.”
Doctors, neurologists, radiologists: Arnaud Denis draws up a list of those he does not thank, and wants to explain why. But he ends with a quote from Sempé: “I have always forgiven those who have offended me. But I have the list.”
Me Courtois indicated that he had “already contested the dismissal” at the end of August of the complaint filed on January 5 by Arnaud Denis for involuntary injuries.
In a reaction published last Friday by the Ebra media group, the actor said he was “revolted and disillusioned” by this classification, “for an insufficiently characterized offense”: “We are trampling on the little that remains of me”.
Mr. Courtois indicated that he filed a new complaint on September 18, this time with the creation of a civil party, to obtain “the opening of a judicial investigation”.
After his operation, the actor’s general condition deteriorated, leading to the removal of the implant in the United States in April 2024, with no specialist in France being able to intervene. But despite this withdrawal, the troubles had worsened, forcing him to “abandon his profession as an actor” and leaving him “in a state of severe disability”, according to Mr. Courtois.
“If the chronology and reasoning by elimination allows us to estimate that a link is possible between your symptoms and the implantation of the medical device, the absence of a certain causal link established on scientific bases required by criminal law prevents the search for a criminal offense both concerning the manufacturer of the prosthesis and the doctors who prescribed and installed this device”, justified the Paris prosecutor’s office in its letter to Arnaud Denis dated August 31, announcing the filing of his complaint.
“Health scandal”
But, according to Mr. Courtois, “an investigation must be opened: the facts are present, the chronology is completely true and above all there are many victims”. In other health scandals, such as “the Médiator or the Depakine”, the investigation had made it possible to “demonstrate what had really happened”.
The collective created by Arnaud Denis, French Victims of Hernia Prostheses, brings together hundreds of testimonies on social networks from people sharing their dismay in the face of adverse effects linked to implants.
“Despite his suffering, Arnaud was always present in the group of victims and responded to each of us when we were going badly,” Julie Canon, coordinator of the collective action of victims of anti-hernia prostheses, who must take over the reins of the group, told AFP.
Lawyer for the collective, Me Pierre Debuisson criticized to AFP “an emerging but extraordinary health scandal”, with “tens of thousands of victims (…) who are suffering throughout France and who are not listened to either by the medical profession or by the ANSM (National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products)”.
According to him, more than 200,000 operations of this type take place each year in France. “The most reliable studies reveal that there are at least 5 to 10% of victims of these prostheses with moderate to very serious permanent side effects,” or at least 100,000 people, while other studies speak of between 10 and 20%, or “between 100,000 and 300,000 potential victims.”
“216 reports” have already been submitted to the ANSM, and others will be in number, with Me Debuisson ensuring that he has been contacted “by a little more than 500 victims” of these “polypropylene nets installed as part of inguinal and umbilical hernia prostheses”.
“The idea is to have as many people as possible to file complaints at the right time,” he stressed.
