“Contaminated blood: the trial of the year“, had headlined Ouest France in its edition of June 22, 1992. Thirty years have passed since but Bernard Daviet has not forgotten anything. “These are families traumatized for life“, says this retiree from Vouillé-les-Marais, in Vendée. Severe hemophiliac A, which leads to “frequent spontaneous hemorrhages and abnormal bleeding following minor injuries, surgery or dental extraction”, as the French Association of Hemophiliacs explains, it was contaminated in the 1980s. “Anyway, not many hemophiliacs have made it through“says the man who still resents political and medical leaders, three decades after the opening of this ultra-mediatized trial.
“It ruined our life and in my head, it was not always very clear”
“Four responsible, how many culprits?“, thus begins the edifying article by Bernard Le Solleu, journalist at Ouest-France, which presents the stakes of this trial. Four doctors on the bench of the accused. The beginning of a judicial soap opera of more than a decade during from which several ministers and the head of government at the time, Laurent Fabius, will be indicted. “We all had a very bad time during this period.confides Bernard Daviet, former chairman of the committee of the French Association of Hemophiliacs in the Pays de la Loire. It was difficult to see that the politicians were not punished.”
These people infected us, that’s what I remember 30 years later.
Hemophiliacs like Bernard Daviet, four of his brothers died after being infected. “We saw them all leavesaddens Claudie, married to Bernard for 46 years. Bernard’s mother saw them all leave and we said to ourselves: it’s just us, until when?“During those years, Claudie put others first. To support her husband and protect her daughter. “It was very hard to livelaunches Bernard who has just placed a folder full of press clippings on the round table in the living room. It ruined our life and believe me, in my head, it wasn’t always very clear. When we know that tomorrow you may declare AIDS and that in six months you could die, it’s very complicated.“
– Florian Cazzola
Testify to never forget
Sitting in the living room of his pavilion in Vouillé-les-Marais, the windows open to create a draft, Bernard Daviet speaks freely today of his experience. But not too often, if possible. His HIV status, he never hid it. “But vsit always gives shivers to talk about it again because it stirs the past with the death of my brothers.” sadness, anger, illness, treatment, the septuagenarian avoids nothing. When he joined the French Association of Hemophiliacs, it was also to continue the fight, to tell his story and that of so many others in order to pass on to the younger generations, too young to know about this scandal which claimed thousands of victims. .
But the scar is still there. And it doesn’t take much to bring those painful memories to the surface. A television report where we see one of the political figures of the time, a phone call, specific dates.
I can still see myself in the kitchen and hearing someone in the family say to me: we are all going to leave, we are all going to die – Claudie Daviet
“We live with it but it’s difficult. We could only blame them.” The feeling is shared by her husband, 30 years after the start of this trial. Ouest France spoke about it in these terms: “250 hemophiliacs have already died of AIDS. More than a thousand others are infected. Their faces and their suffering will haunt the hearings of the 16th correctional chamber of Paris which today opens the trial of the year, that of blood contaminated by the AIDS virus. Four defendants answer for this tragedy.” Which will lead to convictions, however insufficient, regrets Bernard Daviet.