2023-10-11 11:19:00
The immunologist Francesco Le Foche, attacked in his office in Rome by a former patient, “is better, I spoke to him on the phone. As soon as possible, calmly, I would also like to go and see him”. Thus Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci spoke to time.news Salute on the sidelines of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Sanofi factory in Anagni (Frosinone).
The attack on Le Foche, the immunologist’s story
“He was a patient of mine. He had had a spinal problem, but I had cured him. Then he started asking me to cure his dog. But I couldn’t, I’m not a vet. I think that’s why I was attacked But we’re talking about a person with problems.” Thus, heard by ‘Repubblica’, the immunologist reported on the attack suffered by one of his patients in his office in Via Po in Rome. The man, who first hit him with a paperweight and then kicked and punched him, was stopped by an off-duty policeman and arrested for attempted murder. “To be honest, I don’t remember how he attacked me. I don’t know what happened. Honestly. I arrived at the Umberto First Polyclinic in an unconscious state” explained the doctor.
“I must have seen him three or four times in total. He is a patient with spondylodiscitis. We treated him and now he is fine. But at a certain point he started calling me because his dog was sick. He wanted me to treat the dog too. I told him several times: look, I’m not a vet, I’m sorry but I can’t help you. For this reason I can’t be of any use to you – continued the immunologist -. For months every time he presented himself with the dog problem. Then I think that the dog died and this must have stirred something inside him. The dog was already being looked after by very good vets and if they had told him that nothing could be done it’s not like I could do anything. But he didn’t give up and insisted, ‘ Professor, you can do something. You have to help me. You can save my dog.”
Speaking further about the attacker, Le Foche added: “He is very tall, big. Physically enormous. I was doing visits. He entered my office and attacked me. I weigh 67 kilos. It was impossible for me to contain him. The mother she’s a very decent person. A nice, gentle woman. Usually she’s the one who calms him down and keeps him at bay. This time she didn’t succeed.”
The operation and health condition of the doctor
Le Foche underwent an operation on October 7th. “He has just woken up from anesthesia, because we have carried out some of the operations he will have to undergo. He has a series of fractures of the maxillofacial district and in particular some bad fractures of the nasal bones and the orbito-zygomatic complex”, explained Valentino Valentini, head of the Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of the Umberto I polyclinic in Rome, after having operated on the immunologist, in a press point at the polyclinic, underlining how the patient is “stable”.
“From a maxillofacial point of view, for now we have only done a reduction and containment of the nasal bones – he explains – We have replaced the nose which was broken, displaced and multi-fragmented. He had lacerated-contused wounds in the frontal region which we sutured and there is a significant fracture of the orbit which will need to be reduced and contained as soon as the conditions of the eyeball are stable.”
“As soon as our ophthalmologist colleagues tell us that the eye socket can be touched, we will reconstruct the orbital floor which for now we have left ‘slipped’ on purpose, to avoid compressing the eyeball itself. As soon as the eyeball can be treated it will also be this reconstructed and repositioned in axis with the other eye” added Valentini. The immunologist “is exhausted by what happened and by the very serious injuries sustained, but he is reactive”. In a week, Valentini said, Le Foche will undergo an operation to suture the eyeball.
The surgeons’ other great concern, in fact, is the sight of the immunologist hit in the face. “We have sutured the rupture of the eyeball, about 1 and a half cm in a Y shape, in the next 7-10 days we will evaluate the prognosis to understand how to intervene at the retinal level and then we will move on to the second phase of maxillofacial recovery”, explained Alessandro Lambiase , full professor of Ophthalmology at the Sapienza University of Rome and medical director at Umberto I, who supported Valentini in the operation.
“Francesco Le Foche has suffered a trauma which, in addition to being physical, is equally heavy from a psychological point of view” Valentini underlined. “But those who know Francesco know that he is an affable person and has qualities that are out of the ordinary from the professional and human. Honestly this makes what happened even more incomprehensible.”
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