September 7 – French international defender Jean-Pierre Adams has died, aged 73, after he had been in a deep coma since 1982 following a catastrophic error in anesthesia while undergoing knee surgery.
Adams passed away at the University Hospital of Nîmes. His former clubs Paris St-Germain and Nîmes announced his death on Monday. The Dakar-born Adams won 22 caps for Les Bleus in the 1970s, forming with Marius Tresor what was known as ‘the Black Guard’. He played for Nîmes from 1970-73 and for PSG from 1977-79 after joining from Nice.
In 1982, Adams was administered a near fatal dose of anaesthetic before a routine knee operation. The mistake caused him brain damage and left him in left him in a vegetative state.
His wife Bernadette took care of his care ever since the surgery. In 2007, she told the Blizzard: “Jean-Pierre feels, smells, hears, jumps when a dog barks. But he cannot see.”
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