Didier & Carine

Didier, the battle now begins...

On Wednesday 21 June, a few minutes before the end of the football game, Didier walks off the field feeling bad, and collapses on the grass. We take him to La Tour where it is found out the he had a haemorrage cerebral. He was immediately put in a coma and transferred to Cantonale, where he was operated early next morning, after a critical night trying to drain off the excess blood in the brain.

Due to his french health insurance policy, he has been transferred to the appropriately equipped french hospital in Muelhouse, on the afternoon of Monday 3 July. At this time he was showing initial signs of coming out of the coma.

Now, Thursday 13 July, the doctors have declared he is out of the coma. The real battle, for himself, for his wife Carine, and the two children Maxime (5 years) and Luca (3 years), is now starting. Being out of the coma Didier is now able to realize of what is happening, which is ofcourse very difficult to deal with emotionally. He can recognize faces he knew before, and can communicate so far only by movements, mostly of his left arm and hand. In addition, there is the continuous physical pain and discomfort from the treatment he has undergone, and will continue to undergo. For example the tube to drain excess accumulation of fluids in the lungs is not only extremly painful, but it is also physically damaging. And, it is quite clear that recovery is not going to be a quick story.

Carine will most likely be giving up her job here, and taking on a job in Muelhouse, to be next to Didier as much as possible. Maxime and Luca, presently with their grandma in Toulouse, will join her in the near future.

We hope that Didier and his family will find the strength he needs to deal with this difficult time. We hope that he can find moral support in our good wishes, thoughts, and prayers for a good recovery. In addition to all these physical and emotional problems, there is the day to day financial problem. Here the initial collection that Malte had organized has helped immensely, and continues to help, and again a really big thank-you to everyone who has given so generously. At least in this area, we can continue to reduce this one worry, and for those who wish to continue to help financially, the CFC has established a special account, with the designation of "Didier & Carine", and which will be used only to receive donations to help the family. The account number is:

UBS 0279-HU128257.0

Code SWIFT UBS CERN: UBSWCHZH12B

You can make manual transfers or deposits to this account, or you can set up a monthly standing order for a small amount, which you can start and stop at any time. Individually, we would not even notice a small monthly amount, but the accumulated result will be one less thing for Carine and her family to worry about. We will also inform you all when the situation improves such that all this is not necessary anymore.

Mario Ruggier, Luca Casagrande, Angela-Nathalia Mitaroff, Karl Gill