The coronavirus epidemic continues to escalate in France, with an additional 365 deaths in 24 hours listed Thursday. And one case particularly draws attention: that of Julie, 16, the first adolescent girl to die in France, whose death was announced Thursday evening by the Ministry of Health. His death upsets as much as it raises questions. Julie was not among those at risk and her relatives did not know that she had any illness or factor that could have worsened her reaction to Covid-19.
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"We will never have an answer, it's unbearable," his mother, Sabine, told AFP, recounting his ordeal after tests first negative at Covid-19, then a positive test. For the Director General of Health, Professor Jérôme Salomon, the information concerning the young girl is "important, since severe forms in young subjects are extremely rare". "They occur from time to time for multiple reasons. We see it in particular in certain viral infections (with) exceptional extremely severe forms", he underlined.
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A high school student in Essonne, Julie started coughing last week. Despite the syrups and plants that his mother administered to him then, the coughing attacks did not pass. But at home, no one is still worried: it is said that young people are not affected. And above all: these first two tests at Covid-19 were negative.
The third test is very positive at Covid-19
Monday, his mother still takes him to the general practitioner. And there everything accelerates. Victim of respiratory distress, Julie is hospitalized in Longjumeau, near her home. But her condition worsens and she is transferred overnight from Monday to Tuesday at the Necker hospital in Paris. It is then subjected to a third test. He is positive, she has Covid-19. She is then immediately intubated but nothing helps: she succumbs in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
On the same night, the carers called the hospital, to tell it to "come quickly". "I panicked, there are words that make you understand," confides the mother to AFP today. Once there, she barely has time to see her daughter, who dies shortly after. The family will barely have the right to recover some jewelry, the rest of the belongings, including clothing, to be burned. The funeral will take place on Monday, in the presence of up to ten people. But a large part of France will no doubt have a thought for Julie, the youngest French victim of the new coronavirus.
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