Former France defender Jean-Pierre Adams dies after 40 years in a coma

Comments · 1158 Views

Jean-Pierre Adams, who made 22 international appearances in the 1970s, slipped into a coma after a mistake by his anaesthetist during routine knee surgery in 1982.

Born in Dakar, Senegal in 1948, Jean-Pierre Adams was one of the first men born in West Africa to play for France. His centre-back partnership with Marius Tresor for France was nicknamed “the black guard”. “We learned this morning of the death of Jean-Pierre Adams,” Nimes wrote on Twitter, extending their “sincere condolences to his family”. Adams also played for Nice and Paris Saint-Germain.

 

Jean-Pierre Adams started playing with Entente BFN in 1967 as a striker, with whom he was runner-up in the Championnat de France Amateur twice. In 1970, he signed a contract with Nîmes, going on to remain in Division 1 for the following nine seasons, also representing Nice and Paris Saint-Germain. In the 1971–72 campaign, Adams contributed four goals in all 38 games to help Nîmes to a best-ever second place, also winning the Cup of the Alps. He added a career-best nine for Nice in 1973–74, for a final fifth position. After one year in Division 2 with Mulhouse, Adams retired in 1981 at the age of 33, following a spell with amateurs Chalon.

 

Adams and his wife Bernadette Adams were married in April 1969 and had two sons, Laurent (born 1969) and Frédéric (1976). Following a ligament rupture injury, he was hospitalised for surgery on 17 March 1982 at the Édouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon. After an error made by his anesthesiologist, he suffered bronchospasm which starved his brain of oxygen and he slipped into a coma. In the mid-1990s, when a court of law adjudicated the case, both the anaesthetist and trainee were given one-month suspended sentences and were fined $815. His wife continued to tend to his needs, refusing to consider euthanasia.

Comments