Yasmina Kattou / Photo credits: Thomas COEX / AFP 06:08, January 16, 2024

A court-appointed doctor has assessed the state of health of Alain Delon, who has been weakened since suffering a stroke in 2019, with a view to a possible judicial protection measure requested by the 88-year-old actor and his son, Anthony. Europe 1 takes stock of this assessment, which cannot be carried out by the family doctor.

The judiciary has taken news of Alain Delon. A doctor has indeed been mandated to assess his state of health, with a view to a possible judicial protection measure at the request of the actor himself and his son Anthony. The public prosecutor's office had taken note of the requests, and announced on 11 January that it had referred the matter to "an authorised doctor (...) in order to assess the situation of Alain Delon", in a context of great family division. The 88-year-old French cinema icon has been very weakened since a stroke in 2019.

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So, how does this procedure usually work? First, the assessment cannot be done by the family doctor. Relatives who apply for this legal protection choose one of the doctors authorized by the court.

Everything that is assessed in this health exam

In concrete terms, the assessment lasts an average of one hour. The main purpose of the meeting is to assess a person's physical and intellectual autonomy, explains Antoine Piau, a geriatrician who has often been commissioned to carry out this type of examination. "We assess cognitive functions. There is memory, impaired judgment, praxis: knowing how to use a pen, knowing how to use cutlery, something you used to know how to do and that you don't know how to do anymore," explains the geriatrician.

Also, "language disorders, difficulties in understanding words or finding words are analyzed, whereas before we had no problem in mastering words," adds Antoine Piau, who describes this exam as "hyper-pragmatic". In addition, simple mental arithmetic, or recognizing the function of an object (e.g., saying that a telephone is used for making a call), are taken into account.

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No other medical examinations such as CT scans or MRIs are performed. A medical certificate is then issued to help the guardianship judge make his decision.