Covid patient dies in French hospital after showing fake vaccine pass
The head of the ICU said the story could have been different for the 57-year-old if they had known she was not vaccinated
The head of the ICU where the woman was treated has warned fellow doctors about administering fake vaccination certificates to their patients
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A 57-year-old woman in France has died after being admitted to hospital for Covid but showing medical staff a fake vaccination certificate.
The woman was taken to Raymond-Poincaré de Garches hospital in Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, at the beginning of December.
She died after her health rapidly deteriorated, Franceinfo reported.
“This was the first time we saw a young woman, with no known history [of medical issues], who had been vaccinated in principle, and who developed a form of the disease remarkable for its severity,” professor Djillali Annane, head of hospital’s intensive care unit, told Franceinfo.
The ICU staff carried out a series of tests to look for a possible unknown cause for the patient’s deteriorating health, without success.
But after doing a test to detect antibodies, they realised that the woman had shown them a fake Covid vaccination certificate.
"When we had the revelation that she had not been vaccinated, we understood her medical history better,” Prof Annane said.
However, it was too late for doctors to change her treatment and she died soon after.
Prof Annane said that if they had known sooner she was not vaccinated, the situation could have been different.
"We could have prescribed a treatment based on neutralising antibodies, something we obviously did not think of, because we thought she was vaccinated,” he said.
“To all my colleagues who prescribe false vaccination certificates, I want to say that they are doing their patients a disservice, and cheating them.”
The case of this woman is not unique.
Dr Eric Denis, head of the infectious diseases unit at the Antibes Hospital Centre, said he had three patients in a fortnight with false vaccination certificates, Nice Matin reported.
"Among the patients occupying the intensive care unit beds, we discover that some have false vaccination passes. They are often young patients, 40 years old and younger,” he said.
In August, Dr Jimmy Mohamed, a GP and health writer, wrote on Twitter that he had noticed patients trying to generate vaccination certificates even though they had not had a vaccine.
"For the past few days I have been receiving authentication requests for the Vaccin Ameli service, even though I’m not vaccinating. These are people trying to connect to make false certificates. Be vigilant fellow doctors,” he wrote.
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