My Story

The life of Dr Jerome Manuceau

1. Childhood, studies and careers

I was born in an Ethiopian village called Diré-Daoua.

My parents were children of Cretan immigrants, whose parents had fled the war and the Turkish massacres.

We were part of a small immigrant Greek community, most of whom worked on the Franco-Ethiopian Railroad that joined Djibouti (French colony at the time) in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Diré-Daoua was the intermediate stage in the place of the city of Harrar the regional capital. Indeed, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a railway was built passing through the Harrar, because of the geological fault that runs through Ethiopia.

I attended primary school at the village Greek school, then secondary school as intern at the French School of Addis Ababa. I graduated in Elementary Mathematics in July 1959.

My graduate studies were made at the Faculty of Sciences of Marseille where I obtained:

• three masters (Physics, Mathematical-Physics and Pure Mathematics),
• a postgraduate diploma of Mathematical-Physics,
• a PhD of Specialization in Theoretical Physics
• the State PhD of Science in Mathematics.

I was Research Associate for three years at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) and I was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Faculty of Sciences of Marseille in November 1968.

I was for ten years a member of the Center of Theoretical Physics of Marseille which is a research laboratory of the CNRS. During these ten years, I published 16 articles in international journals, participated in many congresses as a speaker and went on an invitation to several foreign universities (including Leuven, Moscow, Leningrad, Groningen, Aviv, Bologna).

At 38 years old, I was tired of a solitary search, which I saw no tangible and immediate utility, I decided to abandon a comfortable career and all drawn. I then started studying medicine in parallel with my professional and family obligations (at the time I had two children and currently six).

The surgery had always fascinated me because of its deeply human side, it was certainly an unconscious vocation for which I sacrificed all my hobbies, all holidays,

After a lot of hard work, I succeeded the CHU Internship in Marseille in 1985, at the age of 45 years. I did the internship and then the Gold Medal internship without receiving remuneration, at my request. Already having a salary, I did not want to take the place of a student.

In 1988 at the age of 50, I obtained the CES of General Surgery and at the same time became the first Surgeon, Professor of Mathematics, as well as one of the most graduated in University of France. It is the culmination of thirty years of work after the baccalaureate.

Meanwhile on a mathematical level, I also realized a conversion: I only taught the Probabilities and Statistics in the Faculty and research, I only worked on Statistics with medical applications, collaborating with oncologists from the CAC of Marseille (breast cancer): an article has recently been published on this subject.

As a Surgeon, after the internship, I had a status of attaché and substitute in the Department of Professor IMBERT (Vascular and General Surgery) at the Sainte Merguerite Hospital in Marseille. At the death of the latter, my wife being Guadeloupean, I asked for my transfer to the Faculty of Sciences of the University Antilles-Guyana in Pointe-à-Pitre where I started in October 1991.

The University Hospital of Pointe-à-Pitre told me that I did not interest them, even with a precarious status like the one I had in Marseille, I was forced to settle in the private sector. I then chose Sector 1, not wanting to take extra-fees.

To accuse me of having wanted to make money with the Désirade affair is pure slander. Money has never guided my choices or my activities.

In 1991, I became a Professor of Mathematics at the Faculty of Science of the University of the West Indies and Guyana, teaching Probability and Statistics in Bachelor and Master of Mathematics. I headed the Laboratory of Applied Statistics and Computer Science (oriented mainly towards Medical Statistics).

Finally I am private Visceral surgeon, sector 1. Since 1993 I am passionate about laparoscopic surgery that I practice almost exclusively. I frequent major metropolitan and international co-hospital centers four times a year to follow the evolution.

2. The Desirade island case (Guadeloupe)

In August 1995, following two cyclones, a serious problem of public health appeared on the island of Désirade (small dependency of Guadeloupe). As I was the correspondent of the doctor of the island, Dr. Jean-Marie Le Cabellec, I was mixed despite myself to this dramatic case, reported in the site www.desirade-sante.com .

The call for help to DDASS, by Dr. Le Cabellec and myself, were in vain during the nine months that lasted this crisis. Indeed, the DDASS did not want to recognize that the quality of the water was in question. The crisis came to an abrupt end in June 1996, when the island doctor asked people not to drink tap water. Dr. Le Cabellec, August 12, 1996, was stabbed (dagger 40 cm long, having crossed his chest, from side to side). The Police, after a few hours of investigation, have concluded a "suicide attempt for advertising purposes, to defend his cause". This absurd statement was rejected by the medical examiner consulted.

Facing with the scandalous behavior of the Health Authorities and the "pseudo suicide attempt" of Dr. Le Cabellec, I wrote a very violent article against the DDASS : in a local newspaper. The latter sued me in court

1) For defamation : facing the overwhelming evidence that I provided, they backed down.
2) For violence resulting in mutilations and permanent infirmities : facing the absurdity of the accusation, I easily obtained a dismissal.

Meanwhile in Paris, I sued the newspaper Le Figaro for defamation , following the publication of the official version of the Sanitary Authorities ("Collective psychosis fomented by the doctor of the island and the corresponding surgeon" ). Le Figaro was sentenced in first instance and on appeal. This judgment constitutes a final conviction of the DDASS Guadeloupe in this case and the Ministry of Health.

In front of my obstinacy to defend the inhabitants of the Desirade island and its incapacity to condemn me, the DDASS asked by mail to the Social Security to control me. Thus, Social Security has brought a doctor inspector of Paris, Dr. Gay who has mounted a case and sued me before the Social Insurance Section of the Regional Council of the Ordre des Medecins (French Medical Council). The latter has forbidden me to give care to social security for five years. On appeal to the National Council, the sentence was reduced to one year and was confirmed by the State Council. I must say that Dr. Gay is a general practitioner and therefore does not know the surgery. She allowed herself to criticize my operative indications and despite having solicited the patients, none lodged a complaint against me. Since then, she has been called to much more important functions.

In Guadeloupe there have been several murders related to this affair, disguised as suicides or unsolved cases of morals (voir www.desirade-sante.com ). Feeling threatened I preferred to leave Guadeloupe quickly in August 1999, which ruined me and put me in debt. I never recovered since.

For my own part, I do not regret anything, and if I had to do it again, I would do exactly the same thing and as long as I'm alive, I will expose what happened to the Desirade.
More than sixty years ago, Albert Einstein said: « The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. ».

3. The Irish Medical Council case

During the year 2006 I did not treat people with french health insurance. But as I was not banned from exercising, I continued to operate foreigners, especially Irish.

In Ireland, not any surgeon does know how to put a gastric banding on obese people, an Irish private clinic asked me to come to operate in Dublin. The Irish surgeons did not appreciate my presence and accused me of « to perform a very high risk surgery outside a large hospital ». In fact, in Ireland, there is no legislation concerning private clinics. Moreover, I operated under the same conditions as in France. My registration to the Irish Medical Council was suspended immediately. A year later I got a real trial where I defended by myself (Irish lawyers are overpriced). My English being limited and misunderstanding the Irish accent, it was a game of massacre for their lawyer and their experts who were none other than those who had attacked me.

The Irish Medical Council has finally removed me from its board, on the arguments: "bad medical practices" (which are considered in France as good medical practice) and "failure to report the prohibition to treat insured persons in France, during the year 2006 ". In fact I did not report this ban for several reasons:

• it was not a disciplinary sanction, since the commission was joint ;
• it did not really concern any professional misconduct ;
• it actually hid a political sanction imposed on me by the Ministry of Health ;
• in Ireland there is no equivalent procedure. There are only purely Ordinary or Judicial procedures. The French Medical Council (Ordre des Medecins), made them believe that it was a disciplinary sanction.

The French National Ordre des Medecins, at the request of the Paris Ordre des Medecins, decided that I "no longer fulfilled the conditions of morality necessary to remain on the board of the departmental council of the City of Paris and had to be struck off this board ".

Everyone remembers that in 2007, this same National Order considered the behavior of certain members of the Paris Order as perfectly moral, while the IGAS (General Inspectorate of Social Affairs) had raised the concern that the remuneration of some advisers were "Likely to be criminally qualified".

The Council of State (Conseil d'Etat) accepted my petition for protection of fundamental liberties (refere-liberte) and suspended the decision of the National Ordre des Medecins.

4. Conclusion

Completely ruined and receiving only a quarter of my university retirement pension because of over-indebtedness, I find myself unable to support my family (three children: college, high school and university). It's been more than two months since I no longer work. It's very sad, after such a lifetime of hard work and dedication.

The only way to help me is that the Ministry of Health recognizes that the sanction that was imposed on me in 2006 (prohibition to give care to the insured persons) was unfair and REHABILITATE ME.