Seriously Ill French Woman Repatriated from Morocco After Two-Month Lockdown Ordeal

"Their flight was scheduled for March 16. But because of covid-19, Morocco closed its air borders a few days earlier, then it was France, and they couldn’t leave!" the son of the couple from Narbonne tells L’Indépendant. The health of his 69-year-old mother deteriorated.

"My mother is a type 3 diabetic and has high blood pressure, with stents placed in her heart. We were already worried from the start of the virus spread, because she was at risk," the son confides. Then, around mid-March, "she started having severe lower back pain. But with covid, she was afraid to go see a Moroccan doctor, given her profile." Faced with the intense pain she was feeling, in early April, "she went to a private clinic, where she underwent tests for four days," the son of the sexagenarian continues.

The family could not afford the hospitalization costs. "We couldn’t pay. More than 4,000 euros. I had to start a kitty with my friends to settle the four days and the four x-rays," he says. The tests revealed the presence of "bone metastases in the lumbar spine. In other words, a cancer that needs to be treated quickly. That’s when we requested the medical repatriation." The Narbonne man undertook several steps to obtain the repatriation of his mother. A real obstacle course.

"Of course we contacted the French consulate in Rabat. We sent all the necessary documents. But we didn’t get any answers for two months, while my mother was suffering," he laments. The son then wrote to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the deputy Alain Perea, the town hall, the prefecture. On Friday, the consulate finally called him to tell him that a place had been recovered for a flight this Wednesday. "But just one place for my mother. My father has to wait. I’m going to pick her up in Paris and then take her to the St-Eloi hospital in Montpellier."