Frederick was revealed in Married at first sight 2022, on M6. And immediately he touched viewers with his personal story. The 40-year-old real estate agent is the father of a 14-year-old girl named Ambre. And since birth, the young woman has suffered from West syndrome. She therefore has epileptic seizures on a daily basis, does not speak and does not walk, which required her to live in a specialized institute far from him, in Switzerland. A subject on which the candidate, who lives in the south of France, is entrusted to magic mom.
Frédérick quickly understood that something was wrong, following the birth of Ambre. A delivery that was also difficult, resulting in a lack of oxygen. While she was one month old and gave her the bottle, Emilie’s husband noticed that she had cyanosis (abnormal bluish coloring of the skin, due to insufficient oxygenation of the blood). “I saw her skin turn blue or even purple. I immediately informed the mother. She resumed normal colors fairly quickly, but it tipped me off.“, he confided to our colleagues.
But the next day, the same situation occurred, pushing Frédérick and his ex to go to the emergency room. And Amber suffered cyanosis again during a medical imaging check-up. “The problem is that these crises were closer and closer together. Initially every hour, then every 30 minutes“, he continued. So his daughter stayed in the hospital and from the first evening, she gave her parents a big scare. “The nurses came running, Amber didn’t wake up anymore. She had a heart attack. Those 30 seconds were the longest of my life. I thought I was going to lose my daughter“, he recalled.
A couple destroyed by illness
Her daughter Ambre finally got out and was hospitalized for a month and a half. Stay during which her West syndrome was diagnosed, a shock for the parents who understood that Ambre was going to have to be followed for life. “Once the right treatment has been found to limit epilepsy, we move on to home treatment with monthly follow-up for a few days each time.“, he said. In particular, he was placed with a vagus nerve stimulator, a kind of magnet that sends a shock and helps calm a crisis.
For the couple of young parents, this ordeal is a cold shower that keeps them further and further apart. “We placed Ambre in a bubble, unconsciously and we completely put our story aside. In some similar cases, the child’s illness can bring the couple together and strengthen them. Ours was destroyed. We had become roommates who took turns looking after our daughter. We couldn’t cope and we broke up before Amber’s first birthday.“, he concluded.