“I’ve made a lot of progress here”: why some Tahitian patients are being rehabilitated at Propara in Montpellier ?

Noatu Gandouin, venu de Papeete pour suivre sa rééducation. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Grâce à une convention, le centre Te Tiare de Punaauia à Tahiti peut s’adosser au centre de rééducation montpelliérain pionnier dans l’utilisation de nouvelles technologies, en particulier en matière de lésion médullaire. L’exemple avec un premier patient de 21 ans, Noatu Gandouin.

It was a day of celebration in August 2023 on a heavenly beach in Papeete. Noatu Gandouin is taking part in this beautiful day of pirogue races. In the distance, he sees a balloon on the ocean water. He decides to go get it. He dives and then it's a black hole. He wakes up with no memory. He doesn't seem to have hit his head, but he's not sure.

His body is almost paralyzed. He was taken out of the water barely conscious and transferred to the nearest hospital, Taaone. “They took me out of the water and then I woke up in the hospital”, says Noatu Gandouin. The diagnosis falls: cervical fracture with spinal contusion. “A very small lesion”, assures the 21-year-old, miming it with his fingers.

After 6 to 7 months of rehabilitation

He will spend a week in intensive care and then be admitted to the neurology department of the public hospital. Before leaving for the general rehabilitation center of Te Tiare. He will stay there for 6 to 7 months. It is there that he will start walking again, but the center “lacks equipment. My father fought so that they could find me another place”. A more qualified center. His father, an Alsatian who works in publishing, turns to the mainland and learns that an agreement has been made with the center of excellence for rehabilitation at the Propara center.

This second-year economics and management degree student who hopes to one day work in real estate will be the first patient to benefit from an agreement between Te Tiare and Propara: “It's an agreement based on the same model as we signed with Noumea in 2019”, explains Max Hermet, the president of Propara who went there to meet the teams.

French Excellence

The principle is to transfer spinal cord injury patients when the level of rehabilitation in Polynesia is not adequate. In Montpellier, patients will be able to benefit from the latest technologies: exoskeletons, robotic arms, telemedicine, etc. In this case, a patient's file is examined jointly by Te Tiare and Montpellier, represented by Dr. Cécile Mauri.

Given the very significant cost to Tahitian social security, which covers the costs of medical evacuation and the costs to Propara, a maximum number of eight patients per year has been set: “But it will more reasonably be two or three”, recalls Max Hermet. Proud to represent French excellence in rehabilitation.

In Noatu's case, the progress is spectacular and the hope of resuming his normal life is approaching. It will first be in Strasbourg with his father. Then he will go back to Tahiti. After a stay that he will remember for a long time in Montpellier.