Paris (AFP)

To be breathless after three walks, to fall asleep every night with a sound of awakening in the chest, and anger after the loss of a mother: four women told AFP the life after the Mediator, their "poison" .

- "A slow death", Joy Ercole -

"If you knew how it changed my life," says Joy Ercole, 71. The Servier laboratories knew they were selling poison, unfortunate people, like me, are condemned to a slow death, my life is ruined. "

She took the Mediator six months ago, ten years ago. "I had a lot of sugar in the blood My doctor told me: + I have a medicine that will not make you fat + He knew I was holding on to my line". "The first two months, I vomited, my body rejected him, but my doctor told me to insist."

Joy Ercole had a valvulopathy (dysfunction of the heart valves) and then a pulmonary embolism. Like so many others, she made the connection only thanks to Dr. Irene Frachon who revealed the scandal. "Afterwards, I was abused by Servier, they said I was sick before, but that's wrong!"

She describes her shortness of breath "after the slightest effort". "I was hyperactive, I can not climb three steps". She weighs 87 kilos for 1,55m, 42 kilos more than before. This resident of Limoges is "too tired" to come to the trial that starts Monday. She can not walk without a shopping cart. With a strangled voice, she recounts her grief at not seeing her grandchildren anymore: "They live in California and I can not fly because of my heart problems."

Joy Ercole has been compensated by Oniam, which manages the public compensation fund for victims of the Mediator.

- "Tic tac" in the chest, Patricia Picot -

"My endocrinologist prescribed me the Mediator in 1994: I wanted to lose weight after my first delivery and I took it until 2009," says 67-year-old Patricia Picot. In 1995, she underwent double valvulopathy. In 2011, she underwent a new operation.

She is still on antidepressants. She also takes sleeping pills, because the valves placed during her last heart operation "make a waking sound" in her chest, opening and closing. "Tick tock, tick, all the time". She still suffers from chest pain, "when the weather is wet" because she was "stitched twice".

Patricia Picot, who was head of a real estate agency, was fired for disability in 2011 after 25 years of business. "And then when I took a mortgage, I was overtaxed by the insurance because of my medical history, they did not assure me for the death," she continues.

If she too has been compensated by Oniam, she is waiting for the trial in hopes of "turning the page".

- "I was poisoned", Sylvie Douchet -

"I took the Mediator from 2006 to 2009," says Sylvie Douchet, from Amiens. Quickly she lost the 12 kilos she had taken. "The Mediator worked well, but weird things slowly settled in my body: dizziness, palpitations, sweating."

"After ten months I was diagnosed with valvulopathy". She continued to take the medicine. "When the scandal erupted, I was invaded by the fear of dying, will I wake up again tomorrow?"

Sylvie Douchet is 53 but "the body of an elderly person". "I'm tired, I can not walk, I took 40 kilos, I'm ashamed of myself, this medicine destroyed me"

Oniam has offered to compensate him for 12,000 euros, but Sylvie Douchet refused and waits for the trial: "I was poisoned, it deserves more than that".

- "Mom got choked", Lisa Boussinot -

Lisa Boussinot's mother, Pascale Sarolea, passed away on March 8, 2004, at age 51. She had been taking mediator since 2002.

Sarolea died suddenly eight months after the discovery of her valvulopathy. "She suffocated herself," remembers her daughter, who is a lawyer in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes). But it took six years to understand the reasons for the death. "My father read an article about Irene Frachon's book in 2010. He thought it looked a lot like it." They quickly contacted the whistleblower and filed a complaint in Nanterre court.

"When I discovered that my mother was not dead because of the fatality but because of a drug and a delinquent laboratory, I was angry, it was very painful," says Lisa Boussinot. "This drug that broke out the heart was reimbursed by the Secu, with the taxes of citizens!", She gets carried away.

His family refused compensation from Servier. "Our goal is to keep our freedom of speech.We want justice to hear us, our goal is to inform the public."

© 2019 AFP