Jean-Pierre Adams, former France and Paris St-Germain (PSG) defender, has passed away after 39 years in a coma following a botched knee operation.
Adam, who had been comatose since March 1982 following an error with his supply of anaesthetic during knee surgery, died on Monday at 73.
Read Also: Jean-Pierre Adams: Heartbreaking Story Of Ex-PSG Player Who Has Been In Coma For 39 Years
Born in Senegal, the defender was amongst the first West Africans to play for France, making 22 international appearances for the French national team in the 1970s.
He also made more than 140 appearances for Nimes, Nice and played for Paris St-Germain (PSG).
Announcing Adam’s death, PSG, in a statement, praised the former defender’s “joie de vivre, and charisma” while offering condolences to the deceased family.
The statement added;
Paris Saint-Germain lost, this Monday, September 6, one of its glorious former. Defender of the Rouge et Bleu and the French team, Jean-Pierre Adams wore the Parisian colours from 1977 to 1979. Paris Saint-Germain offers its condolences to his family and loved ones.
Adams got injured during a match with FC Chalon-sur-Saone and was rushed to a hospital in Lyon to undergo routine surgery to correct a problem with his knee.
However, on March 17, 1982 — the day of his surgery — many staff were on strike but the operation still went ahead.
However, almost 40 years later, the Dakar-born defender remains in a coma after the surgery went horribly wrong.
A major blunder involving an almost lethally wrong dose of anaesthetic provided by the surgeon’s anaesthetist saw him starved of oxygen, which resulted in catastrophic brain damage, putting him into a coma.
“The female anesthetist was looking after eight patients, one after the other, like an assembly line,” his wife Bernadette, who cared for Adams at their home throughout his coma, told CNN back in 2016.
She revealed;
Jean-Pierre was supervised by a trainee, who was repeating a year, who later admitted in court: ‘I was not up to the task I was entrusted with.’Given it was not a vital operation, that the hospital was on strike, they were missing doctors and this woman was looking after eight patients, in two different rooms, someone should have called me to say they were going to delay the operation.
They never did — and between the anesthetist and trainee, numerous errors were made.
He leaves behind his wife of 40 years, Bernadette and other family members.
May his soul rest in peace.
