Reims (AFP)

The hospital Sevastopol of Reims, where Vincent Lambert, tetraplegic in vegetative state, died Thursday morning after a week of stop of the treatments, aspires now, after years of tumult and high media coverage, to find a little serenity.

Located in the city center, this modern hospital of approximately 250 beds is one of eight establishments dependent on the University Hospital of Reims. It is dedicated to palliative and geriatric care as well as follow-up care and rehabilitation after road accidents for example.

First treated at the Hospital Center Châlons-en-Champagne and the center of awakening of Berck-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and the Residence of Capuchins in Reims, Vincent Lambert arrived in November 2011 in the fourth floor of this structure.

In addition to the journalists present, sometimes in large numbers, outside, the hospital has been the theater, over the years, of several demonstrations, with the support of parents of Vincent, Viviane and Pierre Lambert, traditionalist Catholics. fiercely opposed to any cessation of treatment.

Not to mention the many daily phone calls that could disrupt the normal operation of the establishment.

"In the different media peaks of this case, we have had up to fifty calls a day," told AFP a hospital source.

"Some asked to speak to Dr. Sanchez (the doctor decided to stop treatment), others to Rachel Lambert (the wife), others wanted to reach her parents or said they wanted to provide solutions. , expressed their disagreement with the medical decision, others uttered outright insults or very violent threats ".

- "Vincent Lambert's kidnapping threats" -

In addition to the phone calls, there were also e-mails to the hospital and the many letters, from people who pleaded to "let go Vincent" as people who denounced "an assassination".

Some letters were "very vehement" and contained "explicit threats". "It is possible that some couriers are the subject of legal proceedings.We will update with law enforcement very soon," says the hospital source.

During all these years, safety in this hospital structure has been reinforced both inside and outside the establishment. "There has been, in particular, in the past, threats of kidnapping the patient," recalls a hospital source. "But we have had no proven intrusion attempt."

Vincent Lambert's room was, over time, equipped with a "porthole" on the door, with "a small sheet placed on it, which the nurses raised to see if everything was going well inside", d a baby-phone and a lock, the door being always locked. "When we got to the 4th floor, we had to show his identity card at each visit," recalls one family member.

Dr. Vincent Sanchez, who received personal threats and was accused by the Lambert parents of being the instigator of the "murder" of their son, benefited from this increased security and the hospital asked the media that some old photos of him present on the internet are not published.

"Today, Dr. Sanchez must certainly be very stressed especially since there is always the sword of Damocles complaints parents but he remains true to himself: calm and posed," says a manager of the 'hospital.

Like the family, the nursing staff also benefited from a "psychological assistance cell" at each stop treatment procedure. And during the cessation of treatment, the nurses were present "on a voluntary basis".

"Throughout these years, the staff was very professional by always talking to him and explaining the treatments they were doing Vincent was never a number, nor a thing," says his brother Frederic.

"When he died, nurses held his hand and Dr. Sanchez spoke to him, even after the death," says another family member.

"Hopefully, for the hospital too, things will become calmer again!" For families of patients treated on the same floor as Vincent, it must have been an extremely painful situation as well, "said Marie-Geneviève Lambert, her older sister.

© 2019 AFP