Damien Touzéteam cyclist Cofidishe confessed in the newspaper ‘L’Equipe’ his terrible experience after suffering a tremendous fall on February 10 in the Tour of Oman that had him in the hospital on the verge of death.
On the day of the fall, the 29-year-old French cyclist called his wife to say goodbye.
“I was working, I wasn’t watching the race. When Damien called me, I didn’t even know he had fallen, he was crying. He told me: ‘I’m going to die.’ Tell our son that I love him.” He explained to me that in the hospital they diagnosed him with a fractured pelvis and femur. I reassured him that he couldn’t die from that. But deep down, I felt that it was something more serious,” Sofía, Damien Touzé’s partner, told Yohann Hautbois in Belgium.
A bad diagnosis and terrible hospital conditions almost condemned Damien Touzé to death
Touzé confirmed in the French newspaper that “I had the strange feeling that I was fading”.
The agony of Damien Touzé, Cofidis cyclist, after a serious accident: “I’m going to die, tell our son that I love him”
“After the accident, I didn’t feel any pain, but when the sports director (Gorka Gerrikagoitia) arrived, I saw in his face that he was not calm. I didn’t want to be alone; I was afraid, in a country I didn’t know… In a makeshift hospital, without an
It was terrifying; He felt like he had no one to support him. The Cofidis doctor saved his life
When they transferred him to another hospital they discovered that Damien Touzé suffered a ruptured spleenbut his medical condition worsened when his fever rose to 40 degrees and his resting heart rate was 100 beats per minute: “After one night, when the Cofidis doctor (Annemie Batjoens) came back to see me, I was completely out of my mind. With every hour that passed, it got worse and worse.”
They put me near the garbage cans, there were flies, a man was spraying insecticide to disinfect, it was surreal
“It was terrifying; he felt like he had no one to support him. The Cofidis doctor saved his life,” confirmed his uncle. Jean-Philippe Yonsporting director of VC Rouen.
Damien Touzé: “The doctor was honest with me; it could be that I wouldn’t wake up… and I said goodbye to Sofía”
The doctor’s story, who suspected a intestinal perforation The one that ended up operating on him is just as shocking as that of Touzé: “At first they mentioned the leg injury, but I saw that the most serious thing was the abdominal trauma. The first hospital was too small for this type of injury. I didn’t want to leave him alone in such precarious conditions… I only had one patient, but I worked day and night because I didn’t trust them.”
When they stuck the scissors into my stomach, they hit my organs; It was like I was stabbed
“The doctor was honest with me; it could be that she wouldn’t wake up. She was crying in the hospital. At first, I refused to believe it, I didn’t believe it, I didn’t want to call Sofía (her partner), I preferred to wait until the next day, but the doctor insisted: “You may not talk to her again.” I picked up the phone and, unfortunately, I said goodbye to her,” Touzé said.
The agony of Damien Touzé, Cofidis cyclist, after a serious accident: “I’m going to die, tell our son that I love him”
After his transfer from the hospital, Damien Touzé was placed with six other patients, “near the garbage cans, there were flies, a man was spraying insecticide to disinfect, it was surreal.”
Sofía even recorded the moment in which she shows herself a healthcare worker opening the cyclist’s stomach with scissors to drain the pus.
Damien Touzé: “The doctors did not close the abdominal wall; my organs were in contact with the skin”
Finally Sofía and Damien Touzé managed to move to Belgiumso that the cyclist would undergo a operation that lasted five hours.
The agony of Damien Touzé, Cofidis cyclist, after a serious accident: “I’m going to die, tell our son that I love him”
“Then they realized that in Oman, the doctors had not closed my abdominal wall; my organs were in contact with the skin. So, when they stuck the scissors into my stomach, they hit my organs; it was like they were stabbing me,” described the Cofidis runner.
Damien Touzé is not sure if he can compete again after the serious fall and medical errors
After this medical nightmare Damien Touzé, who will be out for between eight and nine monthsit is not clear if he will be able to compete again. At the moment he must recover his left knee: he suffered a fracture in the upper part of the tibia, rupture of the cruciate ligaments and the medial and lateral ligaments.
“I want to get back on the bike and see how it goes. But let’s be realistic. A year without riding, even if I renew my contract, I won’t be competing in March! Contracts are signed earlier and earlier, and if that means returning to the peloton without being at the right level… Maybe I will have to make a decision without knowing if I will be able to ride again,” he acknowledged.