Dans la nuit du 2 au 3 juillet 2007, Mélina, âgée de quatorze ans, est décédée d'une rupture d'anévrisme. La vie est pleine de promesses à cet âge. La mort n'effleure pas la conscience de ces jeunes. Leur vie est occupée à vivre de grands changements, à voir sourdre des révoltes face au monde, à profiter d'une liberté naissante, à vivre tout simplement…
La liberté, la révolte, elle n'aura pas eu le temps de les vivre. La révolte s'est faite en moi, elle a couché sur le papier ces quelques vers nourris des paysages islandais découverts durant les mois de juillet et août 2007.
Une complainte mue en un chant d'espoir pour métamorphoser cette mort si inattendue en une résurrection pour d'autres :
Don d'organes pour Mélina,
Recueil de fonds pour un chercheur du centre national des lésions neurovasculaires malformatives, service du Professeur Lasjaunias à Bicêtre qui œuvre à la recherche sur les ruptures d'anévrisme de l'enfant,
pour permettre à des jeunes de pouvoir :
" Sentir le sable sous mes pieds Courir sous des jets d'eau Voir la rosée du matin Manger des bonbons Me rouler dans l'herbe Etre avec mes amis Tomber amoureuse Dorer au soleil Manger de la barbe à Papa Prendre plein de photos. "
Mélina Wojciak
Avril 2007
Merci d'avoir participé à la recherche dans ce domaine.
Catherine THUILLIER janvier 2008
Iceland between darkness and ligth
A photographic book for research on ruptured aneurysm of the child
Foreword by Amelie NOTHOMB
Paris, 26th March 2008
A child dies. A young girl of fourteen, in full health and vitality, collapses. An existence disappears, without reason other than an aneurysm rupture.
Full stop? No, that's intolerable. Aneurysmal rupture in a child is considered an illness too rare to be researched. To how many parents cut off from their children will this situation end up presenting itself?
Iceland is built from its process of destruction. Let this island of chaos be an example to us.
Amélie Nothomb
Preface by Professor Pierre Lasjaunias
Aneurisms are deformations of the artery wall usually due to a weakning of this wall, susceptible from that moment to rupture brutally. In fact, there exist so many different types and causes of “aneurism” that it should really be called “aneurysmal disease”. Little is known of the diseases which cause these aneurisms, and in particular in children which is especially rare.
In fact, aneurisms can develop in a few hours, days or months. It is estimated that 0.3% of the population carries an aneurism and that of them 5% have their aneurism diagnosed before the age of 15.
This shows that many do not rupture and this affliction is very rare in children. Our ability to predict the presence of an aneurism and to treat those who are at risk of having it rupture (in adults but more particularly in children) is a permanent issue. Progress is gradual but we are going forward. The rupture of Melina's aneurism belongs to this type of disease. No illess is fair. The disappearance of no human being is worse than another, but the death of a child to a rare disease that we know how to treat better when we diagnose it, is an unacceptable cruelty. The French national centre for atypical neurovascular injuries, in particular those in children, with whom we are coordinating at the Bicetre hospital, is involved in the fight against these illnesses, the screening for them, their treatment and the understanding of their occurance.
Professor Pierre Lasjaunias
Bicetre Hospital in june 2008
Afterword by Professor Michel ZERAH
Pierre Lasjaunias will never see this book published. He died suddenly as he was going to participate in an international meeting for the progress of research and taking on responsibility for illnesses like that which killed Mélina.
“No illess is fair. The disappearance of no human being is worse than another...” he wrote in his preface. It is probably true. We can believe it. “Full stop? No, that's intolerable” Amelie Nothomb seems to answer. I hope that Pierre Lasjaunias will forgive me for, for once, not being on his side.
From the long saga of Hrafnkell to the subtle Vespertine of Björk, the Icelandics have always known how to sing songs of vulnerability, honesty, friendship and strength. Pierre would be able to recognise himself in them.
The task of getting through an illness is long, still too long. Probably longer now than before.
